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LONDON-British Land has refinanced its Meadowhall shopping center in anticipation of converting to REIT status next year. The euro 1.5-billion ($1.9-billion) refinancing will save the company euro 4.4 million ($5.7 million) a year on interest repayments.

The shopping center in Sheffield is currently securitized through Meadowhall CMR Finance and will be refinanced for euro 1.5 billion ($1.9 billion) through Meadowhall Finance PLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Land. The proposed refinancing will have a weighted average interest rate of about 4.9%.

The deal is similar to the euro 3.1-billion ($4-billion) structure put in place for British Land's Broadgate project in March 2005 and to the euro 1.1-billion ($1.4-billion) securitization of its BL Superstores supermarket in February of this year. Financing costs of Meadowhall will shrink from 5.5% to 4.9% following the deal. Meadowhall represents a major proportion of the group's total portfolio and the refinancing drops the group's weighted average cost of debt by nearly 10 basis points.