British Land To Squeeze £75 Million More Out Of Sainsbury Supermarket Portfolio

LONDON - BUSINESS WIRE - Sept. 18, 2003 - Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today it assigned its preliminary credit ratings to Werretown Supermarkets Securitisations PLC's £75.476 million additional issuance. The collateral is a portfolio of 35 supermarkets located throughout England and Wales owned by British Land Co. PLC and currently let to Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd., which is guaranteed by J. Sainsbury PLC (A-/Negative/A-2).

'This additional debt raised on the portfolio of supermarkets let to Sainsbury's reflects significant asset management by British Land over the past two years,' said credit analyst Ronan Fox, director at Standard & Poor's Structured Finance Ratings group in London. 'Ten store extensions have been completed, with a major increase in British Land's economic interest in a store at Croydon.'

Mr. Fox added that the transaction was structured to rate through the default of the tenant and this allowed the rating on the debt to be higher than the rating on the sole tenant. To achieve this higher rating, a liquidity line would continue to pay noteholders in the assumed hypothetical default of the tenant until the cash flows at the property resume following relettings.

The ratings reflect the 10 physical extensions, an increase in the borrower's economic interests in one property, and rent increases following contractual uplifts or rent reviews. Both tranches of additional issuance are fully fungible with existing classes of debt, which were described in Standard & Poor's new issue report of July 4, 2001.

The full presale report for this additional issuance can be found on Standard & Poor's Web site at www.standardandpoors.com. Click on Credit Ratings; then, in the left navigation bar under Browse by Business Line, select Structured Finance; scroll down to Presale Credit Reports to locate the report.
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