Great Portland Estates plc (LON:GPE) has announced that it has signed a new £525 million ESG-linked unsecured revolving credit facility (RCF) with a group of four existing relationship banks. The facility has a headline margin of 105 basis points over SONIA, with an initial five-year term, which may be extended to a maximum of seven years at GPE’s request, subject to bank consent. The facility incorporates our ESG KPI-linked margin adjustments and standard unsecured financial covenants, consistent with our existing bank arrangements.
The new RCF replaces the Group’s existing £450 million facility and will be available for general corporate purposes; this includes the prepayment of its £75m term loan which has a headline margin of 175 basis points over SONIA.
In addition, GPE has exercised the first extension option on its existing £150 million ESG-linked revolving credit facility, extending its maturity to October 2028. The Group’s total bank facilities remain unchanged at £675 million. These refinancing activities have increased the Group’s weighted average debt maturity by approximately two years on a fully drawn basis.
The participating banks are NatWest, Santander, Bank of China and Lloyds Bank plc. NatWest acted as the Documentation Coordinator and Santander as the Sustainability Coordinator.
Nick Sanderson, Great Portland Estates CF&OO, said, “We are delighted to have arranged our largest ever bank facility with existing relationship banks, demonstrating strong support for our focused strategy. Along with our existing £150m RCF, our bank debt facilities provide further flexibility for us as we allocate capital into our development and refurbishment pipeline, delivering premium spaces for our customers.”
