The owners of Atria Watford announced this week that a new financial restructuring plan has been agreed for the shopping centre.

SGS also revealed that the restructuring enables new funding to support further investment of its four shopping centres, which includes Watford.

Steve Gray, head of European Retail Asset Management at Global Mutual - the company which took over the shopping centre last year - described the news as a "defining moment".

He said he was "proud" his team have been able to deliver over the transition period and says thanks to the new funding certainty and "stable" capital structure, SGS can now focus on delivering its three-year business plan.

See more: Owners of Atria Watford issue update on future of shopping centre

But what does the financial restructuring agreed entail? SGS says heads of terms have been agreed with all of its term load providers and noteholders (those who have lent money) and there are three key objectives of the long term restructuring.

This includes establishing a 'stable' capital structure; a mix of various external funding, known as capital, used to finance a business.

This will be helped by a term bank loan repayment date being extended until March 2024, with a further extension to December 2024 if certain milestones are met

Original notionals will remain in place and all interest will be paid on a 'Pay If You Can' basis. Any interest not paid in cash will be capitalised and added to the debt balance.

Stakeholder interests will be aligned and there will be one security package as per a pari passu principle - which means all unsecured creditors in insolvency processes must share equally any available assets of the company or individual, or any proceeds from the sale of any of those assets, in proportion to the debts due to each creditor.

Meanwhile, heads of terms have also been agreed on a new 'super senior money facility'.

SGS says this will ensure that the business plan is fully financed. The facility is being provided on a back stop basis and all term lenders and noteholders will be offered the ability to subscribe to the facility.

Mr Gray said: "The agreement of a long-term financial restructuring and new funding with our lenders is a defining moment for our four shopping centres [Watford, Lakeside, Victoria Centre - Nottingham, and Braehead]. Thanks to funding certainty and a stable capital structure we can now focus on delivering our three-year business plan and exit strategy with renewed confidence.

"I am also very pleased to report a strong operational performance across our centres despite the sustained headwinds caused by Covid-19, with further improvements expected as restrictions ease further over the coming weeks.

"Despite transitioning to new ownership and management in the midst of a global pandemic - that has posed undoubtedly the greatest challenge to our sector in recent memory - I am proud to say we have delivered on what we set out to do only a few short months ago."

Last summer, the future of Watford's shopping centre was uncertain after its previous owners - intu Properties - fell into administration.

The transfer of the centre management from intu to Global Mutual and Savills was completed at the end of last year, with the centre rebranded to Atria Watford in March 2021.