The Private Placement was with five institutional investors in four tranches:
· £50 million Senior Notes due 2029;
· £50 million Senior Notes due 2030;
· £10 million Senior Notes due 2031; and
· £40 million Senior Notes due 2034 (“Notes”).
Draw down of the proceeds from the Private Placement will be delayed until March 2019 and will be used to pay down part of the Company's existing unsecured credit facility, which will remain available to draw in full. The Notes have the same financial covenants as the current private placement and unsecured debt facilities.
The impact on the Group's key financial metrics had the Notes been drawn in full on 30 September 2018 is shown below:
· Weighted average debt maturity would have increased from 4.5 years to 6.3 years
· Average cost of debt would have increased from 2.9% to 3.1%; and
· Hedging on drawn debt would have increased from 77% to 97%.
Barclays was the sole placement agent
Martin McGann, Finance Director of LondonMetric, commented:
“We are very pleased to have received strong support from our existing lenders and also from new lending relationships. The Private Placement increases our average debt maturity significantly, further diversifies our funding sources and gives us greater flexibility for future re-financing.”