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Pinewood Group pays £100M dividend and refinances £300M debt
Pinewood’s new £300M bond facility carries a 6.4% interest margin, compared with 3.6% on the prior debt, and Fitch rated the notes BBB.
Pinewood Group, which operates studio real estate behind film and TV production at sites including Pinewood and Shepperton near London, paid its owners a £100M dividend in July using cash reserves, according to Bisnow. The payout came as the studio real estate sector faces pressure from looser lending conditions and occupancy declines, with debt maturities looming for owners across the industry.
The company also completed refinancing on a £300M debt facility due to mature next year, moving to a new £300M bond facility sold to investors. The refinancing increases the interest rate margin to 6.4% from 3.6% on the earlier debt, and Fitch rated the new bonds BBB.
Pinewood is owned by institutional investors led by real estate fund manager Aermont Capital, which took the company private in a £323M deal in 2016 and later recapitalised it at an estimated value of £3B in 2022. The studios cover 1.5 million square feet in the UK, with additional production facilities in Toronto, and the company said it had a 35% loan to value ratio with £1.1B of debt at end-June.
Bisnow also noted that Pinewood’s long leases have provided some insulation from the wider content creation pullback, but first-quarter results still showed strain. Revenue for the three months to 30 June fell 12% to £54M and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation dropped 10% to £36M, and the firm is pivoting from planned production expansion to building a £1B data centre after streaming services stopped signing new long leases.