Stamford Land takes out shareholders’ loans for UK property

STAMFORD Land on Thursday (Jul 25) announced an interested persons transaction in taking out shareholders’ loans totalling about S$413.5 million in relation to the acquisition of the 8 Finsbury Circus property.

These loans were provided by Stamford FC, a subsidiary of Stamford Land, and Ow FC, which is an associate of Stamford Land executive chairman Ow Chio Kiat. Stamford FC has provided a senior loan of about S$75.2 million and a subordinated loan of around S$172.9 million. Ow FC has provided a senior loan of about S$50.2 million and a subordinated loan of around S$115.2 million.

The Finsbury property is a freehold property with 10 floors of Grade A commercial office units with a total floor area of over 180,000 square feet, situated in the city core of London.

The rationale for taking out the shareholders’ loans is to refinance the loans used to acquire the Finsbury property. Acquired in July 2019, it was then partially financed by shareholders’ loans and an external bank loan. The bank loan has since been repaid from monies received from another set of shareholders’ loans in 2023.

The 2024 shareholders’ loans will be used to repay the shareholders’ loans from 2019 and 2023, which are due on Jul 25. Stamford Land said the 2024 shareholders’ loans were procured after considering the company’s cash position and funding requirements.

The senior loans have a maturity of five years with certain pre-payments or early repayment provisions, and rank senior to the subordinated loans.

The audit and risk management committee of Stamford Land is of the view that the 2024 shareholders’ loans are not prejudicial to the company and its minority shareholders.

Shares of Stamford Land closed 1.3 per cent or S$0.005 lower at S$0.38 on Thursday.