Big Yellow hits Aviva and M&G for £100m

Big Yellow has arranged a further £100m loan from Aviva and M&G. The self-storage group has secured an additional £50m, seven-year debt facility with Aviva, taking its total debt with Aviva to £163.4m, while reducing the cost from 4% to 3.5%. The facility also includes sustainability KPIs covering the installation of solar panels across the security stores and the business being on-track to achieve “net renewable energy positive” status by 2030. If Big Yellow sticks to the requirements, it will receive a margin reduction on the new loan. It has also increased its M&G loan by £50m to a total of £120m. The average cost of the M&G loan is now 2.4%, with the loan expiring in June 2023. Big Yellow said it wants to start discussions on refinancing this loan next year. CFO John Trotman said: “These new facilities provide the group with total facilities of £576m, with current headroom of cash and undrawn bank facilities of over £175m. In addition, the group has land surplus to its needs which will be realised over the medium term, generating net cash proceeds estimated currently at over £100m. The average cost of debt on drawn facilities is now 2.8% and the marginal cost of RCF bank debt remains at 1.35%.” To send feedback, e-mail piers.wehner@eg.co.uk or tweet @PiersWehner or @EGPropertyNews Image © Big Yellow