Kiwibank exits Goodman Property's $600 mln lending syndicate

Kiwibank exits Goodman Property's $600 mln lending syndicate

By Suze Metherell

July 25 (BusinessDesk) - Kiwibank has exited a five-year, $30 million lending relationship with Goodman Property Trust, New Zealand's largest listed property investor with the remaining 'big four' banks to boost their funding to $150 million each.

The property trust's $600 million lending syndicate is now evenly split across the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp, Australia & New Zealand Banking Group and National Australia Bank, the Auckland-based property investor's manager said in a statement. Kiwibank exited the syndicate, withdrawing $30 million in funds.

"Their business saw opportunities elsewhere, and we were very happy to help facilitate them leaving," said Andy Eakin, chief financial officer of the trust's manager Goodman (NZ). “‘Kiwibank have been a very supportive lending partner to the trust, committing to the business at a time when global credit markets were stressed and corporate lending was difficult to secure."

It had been a "positive relationship", Eakin said, and he hoped to work with the bank again.

Goodman lifted distributable earnings after tax, a measure of profit that strips out valuation movements, 10 percent to $92.9 million in the year ended March 31, as rental income came on stream from new acquisitions, and flagged asset sales to fund future developments.

Units in the trust gained 0.5 percent to $1.075.

(BusinessDesk)

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