Merlin Properties Takes Out A Mortgage On Marineda City

19 February 2015 – La Voz de Galicia

Merlin Properties has taken out a ten-year loan with a fixed interest rate of 2.66%.

Merlin Properties, the listed real estate investment company (Socimi), which acquired the Marineda City shopping centre from its developers (the businessmen Manuel Jove, José Collazo and José Souto) last July, has just signed a loan for €133.6 million and has secured it with the A Corunian retail complex. The loan, signed with Allianz Real Estate, has been taken out for a ten-year term, at the end of which all of the principal will be repaid, at a fixed interest rate of 2.66%, according to a statement sent by the company to the National Securities Market Commission (Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores or CNMV).

With this loan, which sources at the company assure will not be used to finance the purchase of Marineda, on which it spent €260 million, Merlin increases its gross financial debt to €1,144 million, which is equivalent to 39% of the value of the company’s assets. Sources at the Socimi say that they are continuing to work on the financing of other real estate assets in their portfolio, whilst ensuring that they do not exceed their leverage limit of 50%.

Marineda City is the largest shopping centre in Galicia and the second largest in Spain by surface area. It was opened in 2011 and has a buildable surface area of more than half a million square metres, of which 196,000 sqm are leasable. The retail complex received 15.1 million visitors in 2014, i.e. 15% more than in the previous year.

Original story: La Voz de Galicia

Translation: Carmel Drake