Appleby acted as British Virgin Islands counsel to mandated lead arrangers (MLAs) and bookrunners in providing a HK$1.8 billion secured syndicated term loan and revolving credit facility to Fortune Real Estate Investment Trust (Fortune REIT) involving a BVI borrower and several BVI security providers. The MLAs and bookrunners included Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited, Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
This new facility will be used to partly repay an existing facility made available to Fortune REIT in 2012, on which Appleby also advised, and to finance the corporate funding requirements of Fortune REIT. The Appleby team was led by Jeffrey Kirk, a Banking Partner in Appleby’s Hong Kong office, who was assisted by Senior Associate Rupen Shah. Allen & Overy Hong Kong acted as onshore counsel to the MLAs.
Appleby has been involved in a number of REIT transactions recently, including several financings to both Fortune REIT and Prosperity REIT, and the listing of New Century REIT in Hong Kong. Fortune REIT is a real estate investment trust which is dual listed in Singapore and Hong Kong and holds a portfolio of 17 private housing estate retail properties across Hong Kong.
