Franklin Street Properties Announces $900 Million Unsecured Credit Facility With a Fixed Rate Component

Franklin Street Properties

, an investment firm specializing in real estate, today announced the closing of an unsecured credit facility comprised of both a revolving line of credit and a term loan with a group of banks (the "New Facility"). The total availability under the revolving line of credit portion of the New Facility is $500 million and the total amount under the term loan portion of the New Facility is $400 million. The revolving line of credit portion of the New Facility also includes an accordion feature that allows for up to $250 million of additional borrowing capacity subject to receipt of lender commitments and satisfaction of certain customary conditions. As part of the closing, the Company's $600 million revolving credit facility that was scheduled to mature on February 22, 2014 was amended and restated in its entirety and the $482 million in advances outstanding under that revolving credit facility were repaid from the proceeds of the New Facility ($400 million under the term loan and $82 million under the revolving line of credit). The revolving line of credit portion of the New Facility has an initial term of four years that matures on September 27, 2016 and also has a one-year extension option. The term loan portion of the New Facility has a term of five years that matures on September 27, 2017. The New Facility bears interest at either (i) a LIBOR based rate plus 135 to 190 basis points depending on the Company's total leverage ratio at the time of the borrowing (LIBOR plus 145 basis points at September 27, 2012) or (ii) a rate equal to the bank's base rate plus 35 to 90 basis points depending on the Company's total leverage ratio at the time of the borrowing (the bank's base rate plus 45 basis points at September 27, 2012). The New Facility also obligates the Company to pay an annual facility fee of 20 to 40 basis points depending on the Company's total leverage ratio (30 basis points at September 27, 2012). The facility fee is assessed against the total amount of the New Facility, or $900 million. Although the interest rate on the New Facility is variable, the Company elected to fix the base LIBOR interest rate on the $400 million term loan portion of the New Facility at 0.75% per annum for five years by entering into an interest rate swap. Accordingly, based upon the Company's total leverage ratio, as of September 27, 2012, the interest rate on the revolving line of credit portion of the New Facility was 1.67% per annum and the interest rate on the term loan portion of the New Facility was 2.20% per annum. George Carter, President and Chief Executive Officer of FSP, said, "We proactively decided to increase the size of our credit facility from $600 million to $900 million with an additional $250 million accordion feature to assist us in our continuing growth plans. In addition, current market conditions allowed us to fix the base LIBOR interest rate at 0.75% per annum for five years on the term loan and to secure a lower spread over the base LIBOR interest rate on both the revolving line of credit and the term loan. We are pleased to put this unsecured credit facility in place and appreciate the confidence shown in FSP by each of the participating banks."