Cette somme permettra de restructurer sa dette à hauteur de 310 million Euros.
Shurgard Europe completes the first securitisation of European self-storage properties.
Shurgard Europe is pleased to announce the successful closing of an investment grade securitisation totalling EUR 325 million. The debt issuance benefits from the strong performance of Shurgard’s core European portfolio and capitalises on the Company’s leading market position. Today, October 15, 2004, Shurgard Self Storage SCA (Shurgard Europe) closed the debt offering, raising a total of EUR 325 million. The transaction, arranged by Citigroup, was structured based on the current and future cash-flows and collateralisation of 101 self-storage assets located across six European countries.
The securitisation was structured within the existing corporate structure, without isolating the assets into newly created companies, thereby allowing Shurgard to maintain maximum operational flexibility. The debt has been structured into three tranches of seven year non-amortising floating-rate bonds and have been assigned the following ratings by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings: EUR 235 million rated AAA/AA and priced at 3-month Euribor + 0.35%; EUR 40 million rated A/A and priced at 3-month Euribor plus 0.75% and EUR 50 million rated BBB/BBB and priced at 3-month Euribor plus 1.10%. Proceeds will be used for repayment of Shurgard Europe’s outstanding indebtedness of EUR 310 million and for general corporate purposes. The bonds will mature in October 2011 with interest being paid on a quarterly basis starting in January 2005. The structure has been set up to allow for subsequent debt issuance.
The bonds are listed on the Irish Stock Exchange and were heavily oversubscribed, with over thirty banks, investment funds, and insurance companies across Europe purchasing bonds. Steven De Tollenaere, Chief Financial Officer of Shurgard Europe, explains: « This transaction has been very well received by the fixed income markets, with investors attracted to the relatively stable nature of the self-storage business. The transaction enables the Company to secure an attractive long term cost of capital going forward and enhances our ability to access the capital markets as we look to continue Shurgard’s growth in Europe.”
Bruno Roqueplo, President of Shurgard Europe, adds: « The successful re-financing of our core portfolio of assets represents a key milestone towards the implementation of our business plan. Going forward we will focus on enhancing the performance of the securitisation portfolio whilst at the same time looking to grow the business by adding carefully selected sites to the existing portfolio.The successful execution of this strategy will enable Shurgard to further strengthen its leading market position in Europe