Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers has secured a EUR240m refinancing loan from Nykredit for its Kamppi shopping centre, the largest shopping centre in the Nordic Retail Fund, a collective investment scheme advised by Cornerstone. 

Stadium, a Swedish sportswear retailer, has signed a nine year lease for a new 1,400 sq m store on the first and second floors of Kamppi.
 
Nykredit, which previously financed the fund’s acquisition of Kamppi in 2008 with a EUR240m loan maturing in December 2014, has now agreed terms for a new loan of the same amount that will mature in September 2017.  The new loan, with an initial margin of 1.5 per cent, also provides a revolving capex facility that will enable the fund to finance further asset management projects at Kamppi.
 
Through a number of active asset management initiatives since acquisition, Cornerstone has increased footfall at Kamppi by more than nine per cent to 35 million visitors per annum whilst increasing sales by over 30 per cent to EUR247m per annum and the net operating income by 12 per cent since 2008.
 
Cornerstone’s active asset management skills were more recently demonstrated by the letting to Stadium of a newly created unit to provide a new anchor store for Kamppi on the first and second floors at the property’s Western entrance. Stadium is the Nordic region’s largest sports chain with 110 stores across Sweden, Finland and Denmark. The new store will open in Autumn 2013.
 
Kamppi, which is considered the leading shopping centre in downtown Helsinki, opened in March 2006, and provides approximately 35,000 sq m of retail and leisure space over six floors.  The property was acquired by Cornerstone for the fund in April 2008.
 
Charles Weeks, chief executive of Cornerstone Europe, says: “The fact that we have been able to refinance Kamppi, significantly ahead of schedule, underlines the high quality of this asset. In addition, the refinancing terms reflect not only the existing value of the asset, but also its enormous potential which we expect to extract and deliver to investors over the coming months and years, through our asset management programmes, building on the annual increases in footfall, sales and net operating income that we have already achieved for our stakeholders.”

Claus Frogner, first vice president, international corporate banking, Nykredit, says: “Despite being bought just before the onset of the financial crisis, Kamppi has performed well through some challenging years. Nykredit has been associated with Kamppi since it was acquired by the Nordic Retail Fund back in April 2008. Having witnessed a steady improvement in tenant mix, rents and earnings, Nykredit remains very comfortable that Cornerstone will continue to deliver on these parameters.  Therefore, Nykredit is pleased to continue to be associated with this key asset in the Nordic Retail Fund following the extension of the financing until September 2017.”