Dundrum Town Centre valued at €1.5bn as owners refinance

Hammerson and Allianz arrange €625m seven-year term loan secured against the centre

Dundrum Town Centre has been valued at more than €1.5 billion by its owners, UK property group Hammerson and German insurer Allianz, as they refinanced the asset.

The 50/50 joint venture partners acquired loans attached to the shopping mall two years ago as part of a €1.85 billion purchase of a portfolio of Nama debt linked to developer Joe O’Reilly’s Chartered Land.

Hammerson and Allianz secured ownership of the Dundrum centre in July last year under a consensual arrangement with Mr O’Reilly in a deal that was understood at the time to have placed a €1 billion-plus valuation on the asset.

Hammerson and Allianz’s real estate unit said on Friday that they had arranged a €625 million seven-year term loan secured against the Dundrum Town Centre, with an interest cost expected to be less than 2 per cent a year.

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In a statement they said that the asset was “valued at more than €1.5 billion”.

BNP Paribas and DekaBank acted as lead arrangers on the debt financing, while Allianz Real Estate acted on behalf of a number of Allianz companies.

The 123,800sq m centre, which opened in 2005, comprises more than 120 shops, 38 restaurants, a 12-screen cinema and 3,400 car park spaces. It is currently 99 per cent occupied, and generates a total passing rent of about €66 million a year.

Hammerson has also secured ownership of a 50 per cent stake in the Ilac shopping centre in Dublin city centre following the acquisition of the Nama portfolio known as Project Jewel in October 2015.

It is also advancing plans to convert loans attached to a 50 per cent stake in the Pavilion in Swords, which was also part of Project Jewel, into an equity stake.

The 2015 deal has also given Hammerson ownership of Dublin Central, a 5.3 acre development site bounded by O’Connell Street and Moore Street in the heart of the capital that previously belonged to Chartered Land.

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan

Joe Brennan is Markets Correspondent of The Irish Times