Advent firm in property deal

Guy
05 July 2005

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ILVA Furniture Ltd, the UK trading arm of the Danish furniture group, backed by private equity group Advent International, has completed a transaction with Marks and Spencer, Bride Hall Estates and Land Securities for the acquisition of leases on the two former Lifestore properties at Gateshead and West Thurrock.

ILVA has been granted planning permission to carry out extensive alterations to each building to create furniture stores in its own unique Scandinavian style, each comprising around 12,000 square metres of trading space. Construction will commence later this month on both developments, which together with the new store already being built at Piccadilly Basin, Manchester, means that ILVA will enter the UK market with the opening of three new stores during the spring and summer of 2006.

Simultaneously with the property transactions, ILVA also completed a comprehensive refinancing package with Kaupthing Bank HF. Spayne Lindsay & Co acted as financial adviser to Ilva on the transaction and related financing.