LMIR – BT
LMIR Trust gets loan conditions extended
Loan facility also reduced to $125m and tenure cut from five to four years
THE manager of Lippo-Mapletree Indonesia Retail Trust (LMIR Trust), which last year obtained a $350 million term loan facility to finance the trust’s purchase of Sun Plaza in Indonesia’s Medan, has secured a deadline extension to meet the lender’s security assignment requirement.
Under the original facility agreement in March last year, the trust manager, Lippo-Mapletree Indonesia Retail Trust Management, was required to procure the consent of certain Indonesian counterparties for a number of build, operate and transfer (BOT) agreements to assign the rights of the manager to the lender, Deutsche Bank, Singapore Branch, as security for the loan.
But there has been a delay in getting consent from these counterparties for some of the malls. The trust manager has been negotiating with the lender to extend the deadline of obtaining the relevant consents to Dec 31, 2009.
This was disclosed in LMIR Trust’s 2008 annual report.
Last Friday, the manager entered into an amendment and restatement agreement with the lender. The lender has agreed to, among other things, extend the deadline to Dec 31, 2009, for an extension fee of $1.5 million to be paid by LMIR Trust.
The loan tenure of the facility has been reduced from five years to four years, with effect from March 31, 2008, the trust manager said yesterday.
It added that ‘following the cancellation of an unutilised portion of the term loan, the loan facility has been reduced to $125 million’.
The other key terms of the loan remain the same. The all-in cost of funds will be about 7.2 per cent per annum for the remainder of the three-year loan tenure.
A separate announcement said that the chief financial officer of the trust manager, Rudi Chuan Hwee Hiow, has stepped down with effect from yesterday ‘to pursue personal interests’.
He is replaced by Shane Hagan, 42, who has many years of experience in financial management of publicly-listed property entities. From 2003 to 2007, for example, Mr Hagan was CFO of the management company of Ascendas Reit.
Alan Wong Peng How has also been appointed as investment manager. He has earlier held positions with MacarthurCook Industrial Reit, Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd and Ascendas Pte Limited.
Former investment manager Leigh Regan will be employed by PT Lippo Karawaci Tbk as business development director and will be based in Jakarta. Mr Regan will continue to support the operating performance of LMIR Trust’s portfolio in Indonesia.