PASADENA, Calif., April 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE) announced today that the Company successfully amended and extended its existing revolving credit agreement (the "Amended Credit Agreement"), with Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated, J.P. Morgan Securities Inc., and Citigroup Global Markets Inc. as joint lead arrangers; Bank of America, N.A., as administrative agent; and certain lenders, in connection with the Amended Credit Agreement.  With approximately $2.5 billion of total commitments from 34 financial institutions, the Company closed $1.5 billion in commitments under the Amended Credit Agreement.  The Amended Credit Agreement lowers applicable interest rate margins and provides for a $500 million accordion option.  The Company's operating partnership, Alexandria Real Estate Equities, L.P. (the "Operating Partnership"), guarantees the obligations of the Company under the Amended Credit Agreement and is no longer a borrower thereunder.  The maturity date for the Amended Credit Agreement has been extended to April 2017, provided that the Company exercises its right to extend the maturity date twice by an additional six months for each exercise.  Certain financial covenants were modified to provide the Company with greater flexibility, including in connection with material acquisitions. 

"We express our appreciation to our important lending relationships for their very strong support and confidence in the Company, with 34 financial institutions providing an aggregate of approximately $2.5 billion of commitments for our $1.5 billion unsecured senior line of credit," said Dean A. Shigenaga, Chief Financial Officer for Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.  "Our unsecured senior line of credit provides the Company with significant liquidity and availability.  Our liquidity was approximately $1.4 billion as of March 31, 2012, including the availability from our unsecured senior line of credit and cash and cash equivalents.  In the first four months of 2012, we enhanced our capital structure and liquidity on our balance sheet through multiple sources of capital, including this amendment to our unsecured senior line of credit, our debut offering of 4.60% unsecured senior notes, our 6.45% perpetual preferred offering, asset sales, joint venture capital, and construction financing."

In conjunction with the Amended Credit Agreement, the Company also entered into amendments to its $750 million 2016 unsecured senior bank term loan and $600 million 2017 unsecured senior bank term loan.  These amendments conform the financial covenants contained in the Company's term loan agreements to those contained in the Amended Credit Agreement.  Following the amendments, the Operating Partnership provides a guarantee of the Company's obligations under the term loan agreements and has been removed as a borrower thereunder.

About Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (NYSE: ARE) is the largest and leading investment-grade real estate investment trust focused principally on owning, operating, and developing high-quality, sustainable real estate for the broad and diverse life science industry. Founded in 1994, Alexandria has the first-mover advantage in every core life science cluster location, including Greater Boston, San Francisco Bay, San Diego, and Greater New York City. Alexandria's high-credit client tenants span the life science industry, including renowned academic and medical institutions, multinational pharmaceutical companies, public and private biotechnology entities, U.S. government research agencies, medical device companies, clean technology companies, venture capitalists, and life science product and service companies. As the recognized real estate partner of the life science industry, Alexandria has a superior track record in driving client tenant productivity and innovation through its best-in-class laboratory and office space, collaborative locations proximate to leading research institutions, unparalleled life science real estate expertise and services, and longstanding and expansive network in the life science community. For additional information on Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., please visit www.are.com.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and our other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SOURCE Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.