Commonwealth Bank of Australia loans Starhill Global REIT a whopping S$212m

The term loan facilities will be maturing in September 2013.

YTL Starhill Global REIT Management Limited, as manager of Starhill Global Real Estate Investment Trust, announced that HSBC Institutional Trust Services (Singapore) Limited has entered into a facility agreement with Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Singapore Branch for term loan facilities of up to JPY13,000,000,000 maturing in September 2013. The JPY Facilities will be secured over the Starhill Global REIT Trustee’s interests in Ngee Ann City on a pari passu basis with the facilities granted to the Starhill Global REIT Trustee under a S$496 million facility agreement entered into in July 2010 (the “S$496 million Facility Agreement”). Details of the S$496 million Facility Agreement can be found in the Manager’s previous announcement made on 26 July 2010.

According to its announcement, the JPY Facilities will be used to finance the Japanese Yen payments to be made by the Starhill Global REIT Trustee under cross currency swaps maturing in November 2011 and September 2012 so as to continue to provide a natural currency hedge for Starhill Global REIT’s Japanese assets. In turn, the Singapore Dollar payments to be received by the Starhill Global REIT Trustee under the cross currency swaps on maturity will be used to reduce the loans under the S$496 million Facility Agreement. Based on the exchange rate of JPY60: S$1, the above transactions are expected to increase the gearing of Starhill Global REIT from approximately 30% to 32%.