Land Securities, Britain's largest property company, said today it was repaying £1.5 billion of its debt ahead of schedule after a crop of asset refinancings and property sales.
"We said at the time of our rights issue that we would continue to actively manage our balance sheet and repay debt when appropriate," chief executive Francis Salway said.
"Our recent activity in executing sales, raising new debt facilities against assets and managing costs has reinforced our confidence in our forecasts and means we have taken this step earlier than our internal plans had assumed."
Yesterday Land Securities said it had sold its 33 per cent stake in landmark UK shopping mall The Bullring for £210 million in one of the biggest retail property deals this year.
News of the plan to repay the syndicated facility failed to lift Land Securities shares in a subdued FTSE 350 Real Estate sector, even though some analysts said the plan suggested life was slowly returning to "pre-rights issue normality" for the bellwether firm.
The share price was down 1 per cent at 679.5 pence at lunchtime when the FTSE 350 Real Estate index was down 0.5 per cent.
Mr Salway said the decision to repay the debt put Land Securities in a strong position to exploit future real estate opportunities and that the company planned to pay down further facilities during the calendar year.
The company said it has retained "significant firepower" from its £756 million rights issue in February and estimates its loan-to-value ratio will fall to around 59 per cent based on March 2009 valuations following repayment of the debt.