Westfield Stratford owner to refinance £750m loan

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has begun to refinance a £750m loan against its Westfield Stratford shopping centre. The Paris-headquartered landlord owns the centre in a joint venture with Dutch pension fund APG and Canadian pension fund CPPIB. Unibail, which also manages the centre, has appointed BNP Paribas and HSBC to look at refinancing the loan, due 2024. The initial loan was provided in 2014 by Crédit Agricole and Deutsche Bank. Major shopping centre owners are increasingly finding themselves under pressure to devise solutions to cope with ongoing turmoil in the retail sector. Fellow retail landlord intu is conducting a similar process for its Trafford Centre asset in Manchester, as previously revealed by EG. It is looking for £750m of fresh debt to secure against the centre. It has just over £1bn of debt secured against it, representing a 49% loan-to-value ratio. To send feedback, e-mail pui-guan.man@egi.co.uk or tweet @PuiGuanM or @estatesgazette