Scentre Group (SCG), the former Westfield Retail Trust, has raised more than $3 billion in a European debt deal in one of the largest debt raisings of its kind by an Australian company.
Shares in Scentre ended yesterday at $3.21, up 0.3% from Tuesday when the proposed funding was first revealed.
The company said in yesterday’s statement that it had priced a $3.045 billion equivalent of senior guaranteed notes under its euro medium term note program on July 8.
"The proceeds will be used to partially refinance Scentre Group’s $5 billion bridge facility," Scentre said in a statement. That loan was put in place during the recent split and restructure of the two Westfield companies.
Westfield Group and Westfield Retail trust were recently reconstructed in a $70 billion split in the Lowy family’s global shopping mall business.
Scentre owns the Australian and New Zealand shopping centres from the retail trust, plus assets (shareholdings in some of the centres) from Westfield Group.
Some of trusts key assets include Westfield Bondi Junction, Parramatta, Chatwood and Westfield Sydney shopping centres.
Scentre has recently completed an investor roadshow in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Edinburgh which helped sell the note issue.
The company is rated A1 by Moody’s and is the highest rated real estate investment trust globally.
"Substantial investor demand resulted in combined orders approaching five billion euros across currencies with Europe’s top tier real money investors actively participating in all tranches," BNP Paribas, which helped organise the bond program, said in a statement.
BNP Paribas arranged the deal alongside 16 other banks, including key European banks such as Deutsche, Barclays and HSBC.
