Big Yellow refinances bank facilities

19th Aug 2014 07:52

Storage provider Big Yellow Group has refinanced its bank facilities, increasing the average unexpired term to 7.8 years, with a lower average cost of debt. The new five-year £145m loan, which was signed with Lloyds and HSBC, is 50% term and 50% revolving, with a reduction of 75 basis points from the previous facility. A further seven-year £70m facility was signed with M&G Investments, together with a short-term bridging facility agreed with Lloyds, which will be repaid on the drawdown of the M&G facility. Big Yellow's chief financial officer, John Trotman, said: "We are delighted to have refinanced our core bank facility and further diversified our lending pool through the new loan from M&G. "These committed facilities, coupled with our existing £95.7m loan from Aviva (remaining term 13 years), have significantly increased the average unexpired term of our debt facilities to 7.8 years. In total we now have £238m drawn out of our total committed facilities." The group said that it expects its average cost of debt would be around 4.2% following the repayment of the Lloyds bridging loan. NR