Cooperative Landgard now has completed a new, significantly improved, long-term refinancing two years before the current financing was up for expiration. This means the financing of the well-known Landgard producer co-operative -with a yearly turnover of over 1.9 billion euro and 3,300 members- is secure for the long-term, up to the year 2023.
The new funding has a maximum term of five years with a basic three-year term and an option for a two-year extension. The interest rate levels were further optimized in line with market conditions and this all will definitively lead to significantly lower financing costs for Landgard, from 2019 onwards.
Regional and national focus
The financing was set up and implemented by the two mandated lead arrangers (MLA or syndicate leaders) DZ Bank and Commerzbank with the general support of the NIBC. The acquired funding is composed of a banking portfolio of 10 institutions, with a regional and national focus and, in particular, with institutions whose structure fits the strategic direction of the Landgard cooperative and the markets that are relevant to their activities.
The legal support, testing and implementation on the Landgard side took place by the well proven team of the law firm of Aderhold, dr. Teacher and dr. Hoppe. "With the new long-term financing and working line structure, Landgard has been able to fully achieve all of its objectives, such as adequate and flexible liquidity, reducing the dependency on bank funds, reducing complexity, and certainly restructuring existing collateral costs and reducing future financing costs."
Restructuring
"A key prerequisite for the new refinancing that was now made possible, was the regained confidence through the successful restructuring of Landgard, the organic growth of this entity throughout the recent years, the new strategic orientation and the unity and transparency regarding its member companies, strategic customers and external partners. As a result of all these developments, we are now also in a position to redeem the state guarantee from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, which originated from the restructuring, ahead of schedule because it is simply no longer necessary due to the systematic reduction of old bank liabilities in the event of a parallel build-up of equity."
"We expressly want to thank DZ Bank, Commerzbank and the NIBC as well as the other future financiers of Landgard and the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for their support in the past and in the future. And we would like to thank our member companies and customers for their trust, and our employees for their commitment. On the Landgard side of things, we thank our CFO, Carsten Bönig, and our head of Finance and Accounting, Michael Maas, who led the project."
Future-oriented investments
"Together, we have achieved a great deal for the producer cooperative Landgard. Thank you," said Armin Rehberg, CEO of Landgard eG. With this financing, Landgard is simultaneously preparing for the future and it is systematically investing in future-oriented investments in IT, location optimization such as the construction of the Neuss cash & carry market and new warehouse locations such as Rade, Berbersdorf or Munich.
Source: Landgard eG