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Segro cheers with a £1.7bn banks deal
25 Feb 2009Industrial property landlord Segro, formerly Slough Estates, today raised hopes it may not need to tap investors for cash after it struck a new deal with its banks.
The firm, owner of warehouses at Slough, Heathrow and Park Royal, renegotiated loan covenants on £1.7 billion of debt.
It came a week after Segro warned it may have to make an emergency rights issue as plummeting property values push loan-to-value ratios ever higher.
Segro said today's deal — which sees it pay a one-off fee of £8.6 million — provides “valuable additional headroom” given the “current uncertain economic environment and difficult property market conditions”.
Rival Brixton warned last week it may have to ask shareholders for cash while larger developers British Land, Hammerson and Land Securities are raising more than £2 billion in total to bolster their balance sheets.
Segro shares jumped 10p to 97p.
