Hammerson raises £400m in private placing

Retail property developer Hammerson said it had raised £400m in a private placement transaction with 11 institutional investors from both the US and the UK.

The company said it had placed fixed-rate private notes with maturities at seven, nine, 11 and 14 years. The notes are denominated in Euro (€177m), pounds (£50m) and US Dollar ($232m) with the US Dollar portion being swapped to fixed Euro (EUR €210m).

The notes were priced on 13 October 2016 with a weighted average coupon at a fixed rate of 1.70%, equivalent nominal value of $488m (£400m) and weighted average maturity of nine years.

Hammerson said the placement will fund in January 2017 and will repay short term bank facilities used for recent acquisitions in Dublin and Birmingham.

Timon Drakesmith, Chief Financial Officer of Hammerson, commented said the financing “locks in long-dated funding at all-time low interest rates”.

“Being Hammerson's second issuance into this market, we are delighted to have built upon the relationships with debt investors from our first placement in 2013 as well as introducing six new investors. We believe this is the largest ever Private Placement for a UK property company."