Canary Wharf has borrowed £610m from American investment giant Apollo in a refinancing deal that will allow it to repay bonds due over the next two years.
The company, which was acquired Brookfield Property Partners and the Qatar Investment Authority in 2015, said the loan was secured against the majority of its 1.2m square feet of retail property, which is currently 97 per cent occupied.
The proceeds will be used to repay Canary Wharf Group’s bonds due in April 2025 and April 2026.
In the last 12 months, the company has now struck more than £2bn of refinancing, meaning that it would not have to do any “material refinancings” until 2028, with no significant office refinancing requirements until late 2029.
The refinancing included £564m on a property on Bank Street, home to Société Générale and the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, and £341m on 25 Churchill Place, where EY and European Medicines Agency have their offices.
“We have achieved a significant amount of financing over the last 12 months and this latest deal with Apollo is testament to the strength of the proposition and our performance at Canary Wharf,” said Canary Wharf CFO Becky Worthington.
“We continue to attract new businesses to the Wharf including health, life sciences, education, VC start-ups and scale-up customers. Several customers have recommitted including Barclays, Morgan Stanley, Citibank and JP Morgan, and earlier this year, Revolut chose Canary Wharf as its global headquarters.”
Construction began on Europe’s tallest purpose-built commercial laboratory in Canary Wharf during September.
Also during September, the company’s credit rating was cut deeper into “junk” status by Fitch, being moved down three notches from BB to B.