Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers Europe has closed a new SKr2.1bn (€240m) term loan with pbb Deutsche Pfandbriefbank and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken.
This brings to €560m the amount of new senior loans in seven months for its Nordic Retail Fund (NRF), a €1bn fund investing in a portfolio of retail properties in Finland and Sweden.
The loans have been used to refinance the portfolio and provide fresh capital for the value-enhancing asset management initiatives and capital expenditure programmes Cornerstone Europe is carrying out across the portfolio.
The fund manager also closed a mezzanine loan arranged by DRC Capital, which can be used to balance NRF’s capital requirements across its assets.
This latest loan follows the successful completion of a €60m facility, signed in June with SEB and Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Company, in relation to two shopping centres in Rovaniemi and Lappeenranta, Finland.
At the end of 2012, Cornerstone Europe closed a €260m facility arranged by the Danish Mortgage Bank Nykredit Bank and secured on the Kamppi shopping centre in Helsinki.
Charles Weeks, chief executive at Cornerstone Europe, said: “Since taking over the asset management of the Nordic Retail Fund in mid-2011, we have successfully completed a number of asset management and capital expenditure initiatives. By leveraging our in-house expertise to stabilise the fund and by concluding this recent refinancing, we are in a strong position to deliver shareholder value.”
