NEPI Rockastle pursues “active liability management strategy”

NEPI Rockcastle, the biggest mall owner in Romania, signed a EUR 175 million three-year unsecured revolving credit facility (RCF) with two one-year extension options, on December 16, 2019.

Three days later it gave an early redemption notice to the holders of the EUR 197 million outstanding 3.750 percent Guaranteed Notes.

NEPI Rockcastle said in its press release that the redemption of the Notes is part of its active liability management strategy, which focuses on improving the cost of capital and extending the debt maturity profile. The redemption of the Notes is supported by the comfortable liquidity position of the group, the company added.

The move marks a change in the company’s financing structure toward RCFs, which represent a more flexible alternative. The latest RCF announced on December 16 includes a non-committed accordion clause that allows the increase of the facility size by up to an additional EUR150 million. The RCF is to be used for general corporate purposes and was provided by a syndicate of four banks: Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC and J.P. Morgan, where Deutsche Bank acted as coordinator, facility agent and sustainability agent.

In 2018, NEPI Rockcastle extended its existing revolving credit facilities to the amount of EUR 400 million with BRD – Group Société Générale, Garanti BBVA International NV, Garanti BBVA Romania, ING Bank NV Amsterdam, Bucharest Branch, Raiffeisen Bank International and Société Générale.

This new RCF increases NEPI Rockcastle’s total unsecured revolving financing capacity to EUR 575 million, all of which is currently available for drawdown.

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