Grainger refinances

1st Oct 2009 08:25

Investors rushed to buy shares in Grainger Thursday morning as the residential property group boosted its liquidity position after agreeing new banking facilities.The company has signed two new forward start credit facilities totalling £615m, comprising a £250m committed term loan which will become available in June 2010 and a £365m committed term loan that the company will be able to draw on from June 2011.The new forward start facilities will mature in December 2012.The new loans will be used to refinance existing revolving credit facilities of £400m and £475m that mature in June 2010 and June 2011 respectively.When refinanced, the revolving credit facilities will be reduced to £250m and £445m respectively.As a result of the new banking agreements the company has no core debt facilities maturing in the financial year to September 2010. In fiscal 2011 only £109m of debt will be maturing while in fiscal 2012 £57m will be due.The group’s borrowing headroom as at the end of September was about £170m.‘Under the old facilities there were aggregate debt repayments of about £900m to be made by June 2011. These are now reduced to about £110 million on 30 June 2011 and a minimal amount in the 18 months after that,’ said Andrew Cunningham, Grainger’s finance director and acting chief executive officer.