UK REIT Hammerson said on Thursday that it has been granted a £505 mln (EUR 568 mln) five-year syndicated credit facility coordinated by BNP Paribas. The loan size was increased from £400 mln to £505 mln following an over-subscription.

The facility carries a margin of 150 basis points over Libor and will be used for general corporate purposes.

A total of 11 financial institutions participated in the facility, with BNP Paribas, Barclays Bank, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, HSBC Bank, JP Morgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Santander each providing £50 mln and Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale each granting £35 mln.

The loan will replace existing undrawn facilities of £670 mln due to expire 2011-2013. Hammerson's third existing revolving credit facility of £340 million will be maintained to maturity (2012-2013).

Following this, the total medium-term committed financing available to Hammerson is approximately £2.7 bn.