Washington Prime Group Announces Amendments to Its Credit Facilities

Washington Prime Group Inc. (NYSE: WPG) today announced that the Company has entered into amendments with respect to its credit facilities, which will provide certain covenant relief through the third quarter of 2021 (the “Amendments”), further strengthening and supporting the Company’s execution of its long term business plan.

Lou Conforti, CEO and Director of Washington Prime Group stated: “I’m pleased to announce the successful modification of our credit facilities without any reduction of their size or change to maturity dates. The quid pro quo is temporary partial collateral which still leaves approximately half of our previously unencumbered net operating income free and clear of mortgage liens. It’s important to point out, the breach was entirely related to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was technical in nature and was limited to leverage based financial covenants. Plain and simple, it’s the result of what happens when a pandemic reduces your numerator e.g. rental income by nearly one half during a quarter. Furthermore, interest coverage was and is still in excess of required thresholds and our ability to service our mortgages and unsecured notes was never in question.

“We structured a favorable modification with our lending partners which allows us to continue to execute our dominant town center mandate. In other words, it’s business as usual and I’d like to thank our lending partners who adamantly believe in our focus of serving midsize cities and their respective demographic constituencies. Their cooperation and support is greatly appreciated.

“As it relates to the second quarter, instead of ‘beefing up’ rental collections for short term results, we steadfastly maintained our policy whereby we regard our tenants as partners. Accordingly, we entered into constructive negotiations in order to resolve amounts owed via reasonable deferral payment plans. We quickly realized if we adopted a confrontational approach with the intent to overemphasize second quarter operating metrics, this would serve as a detriment to longstanding relationships we have worked hard to nurture as well as send a less than friendly message to those tenants we are actively courting.