Merlin Finances Logistics Assets With €68M Loan From ING

28 January 2016 – Expansión

The Socimi Merlin Properties has financed a portfolio of logistics assets through a loan from ING, amounting to €67.9 million. The loan contract has a five-year term and the debt represents around 55% of the asset value.

The seven distribution plants that Merlin has financed are located in logistics estates in areas of influence in Madrid, Valencia, Zaragoza and Vitoria. In total, they have a total leasable surface area of 211,291 m2.

It is not the first time that the largest Spanish Socimi has financed assets with the help of ING. Yesterday, the Director General of ING Wholesale Banking, Íñigo Churruca, said that “this operation is the third financing arrangement between the two companies”.

Merlin Properties, which joined the Ibex 35 in December, is the largest Spanish Socimi by asset volume. In total, it owns 990 properties, worth €5,807 million. It is also the largest Socimi in terms of logistics assets, with a total surface area under management of 1.3 million m2.

The Socimi, created by the management team of Magic Real Estate, with Ismael Clemente (pictured above, centre) at the helm as the President, signed its largest financing operation to date in December, when it secured a loan for €1,700 million from ten overseas financial entities, including ING.

That loan was used to pay off the debt owed by Testa, the real estate company purchased by the Socimi from Sacyr.

The remainder of Merlin Properties’s portfolio includes office buildings, bank branches, a shopping centre and a hotel, and its average occupancy rate amounts to around 94.5%.

Original story: Expansión (by M. Anglés)

Translation: Carmel Drake