SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust Closes $300 Million Series Z Senior Unsecured Debenture Issue

NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES OR OVER UNITED STATES WIRE SERVICES

TORONTO, May 29, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust (“SmartCentres” or the “Trust”) (TSX:SRU.UN) announced today that it has closed its previously announced private placement of $300 million aggregate principal amount of 5.354% Series Z senior unsecured debentures. The Series Z debentures will mature on May 29, 2028. The debentures were offered on an agency basis by a syndicate of agents led by Scotia Capital and CIBC Capital Markets as joint active bookrunners, with Desjardins Securities, RBC Capital Markets and TD Securities as joint bookrunners, and BMO Capital Markets, National Bank Financial, Mizuho Securities, HSBC Securities (Canada), Canaccord Genuity, Casgrain and iA Private Wealth as co-managers. DBRS Morningstar has provided SmartCentres with a credit rating of BBB with a stable trend relating to the debentures.

The net proceeds to SmartCentres from the sale of the Series Z debentures, will be used to refinance existing debt, including the repayment of its $200 million Series I senior unsecured debentures due May 30, 2023, and for general corporate purposes.

This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, any securities in any jurisdiction. The debentures offered have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and state securities laws. Accordingly, the debentures may not be offered or sold to U.S. persons except pursuant to applicable exemptions from registration requirements.

About SmartCentres

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust is one of Canada’s largest fully integrated REITs, with a best-in-class portfolio featuring 188 strategically located properties in communities across the country. SmartCentres has approximately $11.7 billion in assets and owns 34.8 million square feet of income producing value-oriented retail and first-class office space with 98.0% in-place and committed occupancy, on 3,500 acres of owned land across Canada.

SmartCentres continues to focus on enhancing the lives of Canadians by planning and developing complete, connected, mixed-use communities on its existing retail properties. The publicly announced $16.0 billion intensification program ($10.8 billion at SmartCentres' share) represents the REIT’s current major development focus on which construction is expected to commence within the next five years. This intensification program consists of rental apartments, condos, seniors’ residences and hotels, to be developed under the SmartLiving banner, and retail, office, and storage facilities, to be developed under the SmartCentres banner.

SmartCentres' intensification program is expected to produce an additional 55.5 million square feet (40.3 million square feet at SmartCentres’ share) of space, 26.6 million square feet (17.9 million square feet at SmartCentres’ share) of which has or will commence construction within the next five years. From shopping centres to city centres, SmartCentres is uniquely positioned to reshape the Canadian urban and urban-suburban landscape.

Included in this intensification program is the Trust’s share of SmartVMC which, when completed, is expected to include approximately 20.0 million square feet of mixed-use space in Vaughan, Ontario. Final closings of the first three phases of Transit City Condominiums began ahead of budget and ahead of schedule in August 2020 and all 1,741 units, in addition to the 22 townhomes that complete these phases, have now closed. The fourth and fifth sold-out phases representing 1,026 units commenced closing and occupancy in March 2023.

Certain statements in this Press Release are "forward-looking statements" that reflect management's expectations regarding the Trust's future growth, results of operations, performance and business prospects and opportunities. More specifically, certain statements including, but not limited to, statements related to the anticipated use of proceeds of the offering and the date the offering is expected to close, SmartCentres’ expected or planned development plans and joint venture projects, including the described type, scope, costs and other financial metrics and the expected timing of construction and condominium closings and statements that contain words such as "could", "should", "can", "anticipate", "expect", "believe", "will", "may" and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts, constitute "forward-looking statements". These forward-looking statements are presented for the purpose of assisting the Trust's Unitholders and financial analysts in understanding the Trust's operating environment and may not be appropriate for other purposes. Such forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management.

However, such forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including risks associated with potential acquisitions not being completed or not being completed on the contemplated terms, public health crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, real property ownership and development, debt and equity financing for development, interest and financing costs, construction and development risks, and the ability to obtain commercial and municipal consents for development. These risks and others are more fully discussed under the heading “Risks and Uncertainties” and elsewhere in SmartCentres’ most recent Management’s Discussion and Analysis, as well as under the heading “Risk Factors” in SmartCentres’ most recent annual information form. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this Press Release are based on what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, SmartCentres cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. These forward-looking statements are made as at the date of this Press Release and SmartCentres assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances unless otherwise required by applicable securities legislation.

Material factors or assumptions that were applied in drawing a conclusion or making an estimate set out in the forward-looking information may include, but are not limited to: a stable retail environment; a continuing trend toward land use intensification, including residential development in urban markets and continued growth along transportation nodes; access to equity and debt capital markets to fund, at acceptable costs, future capital requirements and to enable our refinancing of debts as they mature; that requisite consents for development will be obtained in the ordinary course, construction and permitting costs consistent with the past year and recent inflation trends. 

For more information, please visit www.smartcentres.com or contact: