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Spurs refinance stadium debt

English Premier League football club Tottenham Hotspur has reportedly secured extra breathing room to pay off the loans it took on to develop its new stadium by refinancing more than £400m (€436.7m/$484.7m) of bank debt.

The North London club borrowed £637m from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and HSBC to help develop its £1bn stadium, which made a delayed debut in April. That bank facility was due to be paid back by April 2022, but The Athletic website said Bank of America has agreed to launch a new private placement scheme to transform around £400m of the debt into bonds with staggered maturities ranging between 15 and 30 years.

The move is said to be designed to take advantage of low interest rates in the US, with Tottenham in October disclosing that it had raised its bank facility from £400m to £637m.

Earlier this month, Haringey Council approved Tottenham’s application to increase the official capacity of the stadium to 62,214. The decision came after a detailed review of the stadium seating bowl during the summer in conjunction with Building Control. The extra seats will be added to Tottenham’s North and South stands.

The previous capacity of the stadium, which hosted its first match on April 3, was 62,062. With a capacity of 17,500, Tottenham’s South Stand was already the largest single-tier stand in England.

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