Tchenguiz gets 750 million pounds in funding

LONDON (Reuters) - Vincent Tchenguiz, one of the UK’s biggest property magnates, told Reuters on Sunday that he has secured around 750 million pounds ($1.55 billion) in debt funding ahead of a planned real estate investment spree.

Tchenguiz said his Consensus Group has agreed separate credit facilities with Bank of Scotland and Merrill Lynch in the face of weakening British commercial property returns and a hostile credit environment for real estate investors.

"This is an exceptional outturn, given current market conditions," Tchenguiz said in an e-mail to Reuters. "We can continue our investments at a rate of 10 million pounds to 20 million pounds per month."

He said 200 million pounds in debt was agreed with Bank of Scotland and was secured against part of its extensive portfolio of residential property ground rents, while another 450-million-pounds facility was agreed with Merrill Lynch to help fund the growth of the group’s residential services firm, Peverel.

Merrill Lynch also agreed to refinance the repayment of a listed debenture worth around 100 million pounds that Consensus assumed responsibility for when it bought Peverel for around 500 million pounds in March, Tchenguiz said.

He said the credit lines gave Consensus the firepower to add to the 600,000 residential properties and 300,000 ground rents .....continued below

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Both facilities were also supported by long-term interest- rate and inflation hedges, he said.

Together with brother Robert, who was recently linked to a takeover bid for British food retailer J Sainsbury PLC , Tchenguiz owns around 4 billion pounds of commercial property.

(See www.reutersrealestate.com for the global service for real estate professionals from Reuters).

(Reporting by Sinead Cruise; Writing by William Kemble-Diaz;

Editing by Jan Paschal )