Member Article

Grainger reduces debt with renewal of syndicated bank facility

Newcastle-based Grainger plc, the UK’s largest listed residential property owner and manager, has announced that it has signed a planned refinancing of its syndicated bank facility, reducing its cost and extending its maturity.

The new £580m facility, which will represent 44% of total group facilities (£1,332m), will mature in August 2020 (previously July 2016). The margin on the facility has been reduced by 50bps to 170bps. The facility structure enables further pricing benefits to be gained at future lower levels of loan to value.

Group average cost of debt reduces to c.4.6% (5.1% as at 31 March 2015). Average maturity of group debt is now c.5.8 years (c.4.4 years as at 31 March 2015).

As at 31 July 2015 and following significant recent investment into regional market rented assets, net debt stood at c.£1,144m.

Mark Greenwood, Grainger’s Finance Director, said “We have been making considerable progress in diversifying our sources of funding and reducing the cost of our debt facilities, which this refinancing further supports.

“We will continue to review all other sources to ensure that we have the most competitive cost of debt to pursue our strategy of accelerating our push into the private rented sector.”

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