CRE Lender Gets Increase in Credit Line

Ares Commercial Real Estate Corp. has gotten an increase in its Citigroup revolving funding facility to $125 million from $86.2 million, as well as reduction in the pricing.

It will now pay Libor plus between 225 basis points and 275 basis points on its borrowings, down from Libor plus between 250 bps and 350 bps. The final repayment date of any borrowings is July 2, 2018, according to information on an 8-K filing obtained via DisclosureNet.com.

Ares originates and invests in middle-market CRE loans, plus it has other CRE investments. The company now has three facilities with capacity of $400 million total.

In June, Ares conducted a public offering which raised gross proceeds of $243 million. Among the uses of those proceeds was to pay for future funding commitments on existing loans.

In a press release, Ares co-CEO Todd Schuster said, “The incremental capacity and enhanced flexibility should provide economic benefits to our shareholders as we fund additional investments and provide the capital sought by our growing client base.”