Blackstone has refinanced its Mileway logistics platform with €7.5 billion of debt from existing and new lenders, CoStar News can reveal.
The debt reflects around 50% loan to value and carries a margin in the mid-200 basis points. It splits into a euro and pound sterling facility and accounts for three-quarters of Mileway’s existing debt.
When Mileway was recapitalised early last year, it was valued at around €21 billion. It is understood that the pricing and loan to value is similar to that seen during the recapitalisation. Mileway owns around 1,900 properties in nine European countries.
The lenders are Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Royal Bank of Canada and SMBC. Some of these banks could be looking to securitise part of the debt.
In October, Blackstone’s second commercial mortgate backed security backed by UK logistics, Stark Financing 2023-1, priced at 260 basis points over the Sterling Over Night Interbank Average (SONIA) rate benchmark, as reported. The £187 million class A notes priced at 220 basis points. In the summer, an earlier Blackstone logistics securitisation, Last Mile Logistics CMBS, priced a little wider, with the £145 million class A notes at 235 basis points.
Blackstone reopened the CMBS market in July with the Last Mile Logistics CMBS after it froze in May 2022 due to uncertainty about inflation and rising interest rates caused by the war in Ukraine. Two more securitisations followed as investors believed that central banks were done with raising interest rates, giving rise to hope that more deals will follow next year.
Although take-up and investment volumes have been down, logistics continue to be popular among investors as rents continue to rise and good space is becoming scarce. Blackstone is a strong believer in logistics, which has accounted for more than 80% of its investments in Europe, including the UK. During the first half of this year, Blackstone was able to charge 45% more rent after leases expired in its UK portfolio.
(Updated on 8 January to add Morgan Stanley to the lenders in fourth paragraph)