Savills has completed the refinancing of the $800m bridge facility used to fund its acquisition of Eastdil Secured and associated transaction costs.
The property group has agreed to issue $350m of new unsecured fixed-rate US private placement notes, which will repay the remaining amount drawn under the bridge.
The notes have maturities of three, five, seven and 10 years and have been placed with six institutional investors, including three new lenders to Savills.
Funds are expected to be drawn on 2 December, subject to contract.
BRIDGE REPLACED WITH LONGER-TERM DEBT
Savills entered into the $800m bridge facility in March to provide funding for the Eastdil Secured acquisition.
The latest private placement follows a $450m three-year term bank loan, with the two facilities together fully refinancing the original acquisition bridge.
NatWest and Lloyds acted as Joint Placement Agents on the new private placement.
The new notes have identical financial covenants to Savills’ other unsecured debt.
‘CONSIDERABLE INVESTOR APPETITE’
Nick Sanderson, Group Chief Financial Officer at Savills, says: “We are pleased with the considerable investor appetite shown for this issue, the second time Savills has accessed the US private placement market.
“When combined with our US$450m three-year term bank loan, the bridge financing facility has now been fully refinanced at a current all-in pricing of 5.7% (in line with our expectations of between 5.5% and 6.0%).
“We remain focused on our strong cash generation and expect the net debt to EBITDA ratio to be c. 1.0 times at the end of 2027.”
