Cambridge Industrial Trust to refinance loan facility

The group prepares to dodge adverse interest rate movements.

Publicly-listed Cambridge Industrial Trust (CIT) decided to refinance the loan facility granted to it by the National Australia Bank (NAB) as it tries to improve the group’s resiliency in the midst of a weakening economic backdrop.

CIT said its weighted average debt expiry will be extended to 3.4 years with 88.5% of interest rate exposure fixed, and all-in cost of debt stable at about 3.65% p.a.

“We will have no major refinancing requirements until 2H2018. We will have also significantly insulated CIT from adverse interest rate movements for the next 3.2 years, and achieved our goal of a 100% unencumbered portfolio which improves CIT’s capital structure and operational flexibility,” said Philip Levinson, CEO of Cambridge Industrial Trust Management.

Given the new loan, all of CIT’s properties will be fully free of financial liability, representing total portfolio value in excess of $1.4 billion.