The Ashtenne Industrial Fund, which invests in UK multi-let industrial estates, has refinanced its £409m of debt.
Aviva Investors and Warner Estate Holdings, which jointly manage the £627m fund, have raised £45m of new equity in order to pay down debt and have refinanced the £364m existing facility for a further four years with Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.
The new equity, issued in the form of convertible loan stock which will convert to units in the fund in September 2012, was raised from the fund’s existing investor base and was ‘significantly’ oversubscribed.
The fund’s £627m portfolio comprises 330 industrial properties, let to 3,112 tenants, with an annual rent roll of £56m. It is now closer to concluding its disposal programme, having completed £52.3m of sales in 29 separate transactions during 2009, at a discount of 3.7% to their collective value in December 2008.
“The combination of the refinancing and the equity raised have given the Ashtenne Industrial Fund a solid base upon which to build, paving the way for a recovery in value through the next few years,” said John Heawood, head of Ashtenne Asset Management, the division of Warner Estate responsible for the asset management of the fund.
