A consortium led by Gaw Capital Partners is seeking to refinance a 14.4 billion Hong Kong dollar loan, about 1.8 billion US dollars, backed by a number of Hong Kong shopping centres, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The group is working on a potential three year facility and is seeking cheaper borrowing costs than the existing financing provides.
Discussions are ongoing and terms have not been decided, the people said. Bloomberg did not name the lenders involved, the existing loan’s pricing or its maturity, or which centres secure the debt.
The refinancing attempt comes while Hong Kong’s retail sales recovery remains uneven, which bears directly on both the income the malls generate and what lenders will charge to refinance against them. A completed refinancing at lower cost would read as evidence that bank appetite for income producing Hong Kong retail assets is returning; a stalled or repriced one would read the other way. Until terms are agreed, the item is a signal of intent, not a transaction.