Hammerson signs new £420m credit facility

Property development and investment company Hammerson shored up its finances on Friday, successfully syndicating and signing a £420m unsecured revolving credit facility with eight international banks, at an initial margin of 90 basis points.

Following the signing of the revolving credit facility, Hammerson said it had total committed financing available of £4.4bn.

The FTSE 100 firm said the new facility will refinance the existing £150m facility, which would have matured in April 2017 and featured a margin of 150 basis points.

Hammerson’s new facility has a maturity of five years, which may be extended to a maximum of seven years on the company’s request and each bank’s approval.

The commercial terms are the same as the £415m facility signed in April last year, with Hammerson’s board confirming it includes its standard unsecured financial covenants.

Its existing £150m facility will be cancelled, resulting in a net increase of £270m of undrawn facilities.

Hammerson will use the increase in liquidity to partially refinance the €1.5bn revolving credit facility used for recent investments in Ireland and Birmingham.

"It is encouraging that the revolving credit facility is on the same attractive terms that we set in April 2015 and four new major international banks have joined our relationship group,” said Hammerson’s chief financial officer Timon Drakesmith.

“We believe this bank facility is the largest arranged by a UK property company so far this year."