ICBC contributes £92.5 million GBP to a £185 million GBP syndicated loan to refinance the Entertainment District and the development of the Designer Outlet Village for The O2 Arena (Linked to Record ID#92057)

Project narrative

In January 2016, Lloyds Commercial Banking entered into a four-year whole £185 million GBP loan facility agreement with a joint venture (JV) between Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and Crosstree Real Estate Partners to partially refinance The O2 Arena's existing Entertainment District and to finance the development of a Designer Outlet Village at The O2. Then, in April 2016, Lloyds Commercial Banking syndicated 50% of the loan (£92.5 million GBP) to the London Branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). This loan carried a maturity period of four years. AEG and Crosstree both hold 50% equity stakes in the JV. AEG is an American sports and live entertainment company that operates The O2 Arena. Crosstree Real Estate Partners is a British private real estate investment. The purpose of the JV was the development of the Designer Outlet Village at The O2, as well as the operation and management of The O2 Arena's existing leisure and retail real estate. This project sought to construct a 204,000 square foot self-contained designer outlet village (mall) at The O2 Arena meant to support a total of 100 shops, namely premium and high street retailers, and restaurants and attract shoppers during the day. Half of the Designer Outlet Village was to occupy an unused space on the upper level of The O2 that has originally built for a casino, and the other half was to occupy a new build, double height space beyond existing restaurants. This was called the ‘most significant expansion of O2’ since the 2007 conversion of the Millennium Dome to a concert venue. The Designer Outlet Village development had a cost of £69 million GBP. The Designer Outlet Village was later branded as ICON Outlet at The O2. In 2013, The Royal Borough of Greenwich had granted planning permission for the retail outlet village to AEG, which negotiated with Land Securities to partner on the project, only to have that deal fall through. Construction was planned to begin in May 2015 and be completed in 2017. ISG served as the design & build contractor responsible for project implementation. CallisonRTKL served as architect. Buro Happold served as structural engineer. ME Engineers served as materials & structures engineer. Bourne Steel served as steelwork contractor. O’Keefe served as concrete contractor and groundwork contractor. Keller served as piling contractor. Cheriton Site Engineering served as an engineering consultant. Bode Technical Services Inc (BTS) served as crane supplier. AV Danzer served as structural steel sub-contractor. Kawneer provided architectural glazing systems for the outlet. JPJ Installations served as an installer. Vexcolt provided Megatec 310 to keep the project site Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) compliant; it also provided the Megatec 300 and 340 in areas with less vertical movement. Project implementation began on June 16, 2016. However, the results of the Brexit referendum on June 24 fermented concerns in AEG about the retail sector. As a result, work was halted on June 30. After negotiations and a return to confidence, a contract was signed in October 2016 and ISG returned to the project site on November 7, 2016. ICON Outlet opened on October 18, 2018 for exclusive access for Priority for O2 customers, with its public opening scheduled for October 20, 2018. Upon completion of the ICON Outlet, ICBC and Lloyds provided a £231,000,000 GBP investment loan to the JV between AEG and Crosstree to refinance the existing £185 million GBP loan facility. ICBC's estimated contribution to that loan is captured via Record ID#92057.