SmartCentres Declares Distribution for December 2020

TORONTO, Dec. 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust (“SmartCentres”) (TSX:SRU.UN) announced today that the trustees of SmartCentres have declared a distribution for the month of December 2020 of CDN $0.15417 per trust unit, representing CDN $1.85 per unit on an annualized basis. Payment will be made on January 15, 2021 to unitholders of record on December 31, 2020.

This decision of the Board follows the recent announcement that DBRS Limited confirmed the Issuer Rating and Senior Unsecured Debentures rating of SmartCentres at BBB (high) with Stable trends and the announcement that SmartCentres sold $650 million Senior Unsecured Debentures – $350 million, 5 year term at 1.74% interest rate and $300 million, 8 year term at 2.037%, both successfully closing on December 16, 2020. SmartCentres intends to use the net proceeds to refinance existing debt.

About SmartCentres

SmartCentres Real Estate Investment Trust is one of Canada’s largest fully integrated REITs, with a best-in-class portfolio featuring 166 strategically located properties in communities across the country. SmartCentres has approximately $10.4 billion in assets and owns 33.8 million square feet of income producing value-oriented retail space with 97.4% occupancy, on 3,500 acres of owned land across Canada.

SmartCentres continues to focus on enhancing the lives of Canadians by planning and developing complete, connected, mixed-use communities on its existing retail properties. A publicly announced $11.9 billion intensification program ($5.4 billion at SmartCentres' share) represents the REIT’s current major development focus on which construction is expected to commence within the next five years. This intensification program consists of rental apartments, condos, seniors’ residences and hotels, to be developed under the SmartLiving banner, and retail, office, and storage facilities, to be developed under the SmartCentres banner.

SmartCentres' intensification program is expected to produce an additional 59.3 million square feet (27.9 million square feet at SmartCentres’ share) of space, 27.1 million square feet (12.3 million square feet at SmartCentres’ share) of which has or will commence construction within next five years. From shopping centres to city centres, SmartCentres is uniquely positioned to reshape the Canadian urban and urban-suburban landscape.