Capco raises £175m from bond placing

Capital & Counties Properties’ (Capco) subsidiary Covent Garden Holdings has raised £175m from an agreed placing of long-term notes with five US investors in order to beef up its balance sheet and repay debt.

The placing of 10-year and 12-year senior unsecured notes will occur in November and the first tranche of £125m will have a fixed coupon of 2.28% due in 2026 and the second tranche of £50m at a fixed coupon of 2.37% due in 2028.

This will be the second private placement the company has held, the first in December 2014 which raised £150m, while in December 2015 the company signed a £705m bank revolving credit facility, which the proceeds of this placement will be used to repay.

Chief executive Soumen Das, said the company “benefitted from the all-time low gilt rates to lock in long-term debt” which extended Capco's weighted average debt maturity to 5.7 years, and increased its capital by £175m at a weighted average coupon of 2.3%.