GPE prices new £250m 7-year Sustainable Bond

Great Portland Estates plc (‘GPE’) announces the pricing of its first sterling denominated senior unsecured sustainable bond (the ‘Bond’). The £250m Bond will have a term of 7 years, will bear interest at a rate of 5.375% and is expected on issue to be rated Baa2 by Moody’s Investor Services Ltd.

The Bond was over 5.5x oversubscribed at the peak.

Alongside our unsecured ESG-linked bank facilities, this sustainable Bond further diversifies our debt funding sources and has extended our weighted average debt maturity to over 5.5 years.

The Mandated Joint Bookrunners in relation to the issue of the Bond were NatWest Markets and Santander, with Lloyds Bank and Bank of China acting as Passive Joint Bookrunners. NatWest acted as Sole Sustainability Structuring Co-ordinator and Lazard acted as GPE’s financial adviser on the transaction.

Nick Sanderson, CF&OO commented, “We are delighted with the robust demand for our debut Sustainable Sterling Bond, demonstrating the strong investor support for the ambition of our strategy and central London focused business model. The Bond will help fund the development of our best-in-class schemes and form part of our pathway to becoming net zero by 2040. When combined with our recent successful rights issue to take advantage of our significant pipeline of acquisition opportunities, we are well positioned to accelerate our growth into increasingly favourable market conditions.”