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Australia’s biggest bank enters sector with £250m of loans to housing associations
Australia’s biggest bank has made a significant move into the UK social housing sector with loans worth over £250m to four large housing associations.
National Australia Bank recently signed a £100m revolving credit facility with London’s largest housing association L&Q, and a £75m facility with A2Dominion. It has also provided bank finance to Essex association CHP.
This followed a £75m revolving credit facility agreed with Sovereign at the end of last year, not revealed until now.
Michael Carr, director of European corporate finance at National Australia Bank, said: “The [bank’s] UK social housing team is committed to building relationships with housing associations to help reduce the housing shortage.
“Providing finance to this sector isn’t just about assets and financial transactions, it’s about projects that make a difference to people’s lives.”
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Martin Watts, director of treasury at L&Q, said of his association’s transaction: “We are very pleased to have closed these deals in record time, working in close partnership with the Capsticks [legal] team.”
On the smaller agreement signed by A2Dominion this week, Dean Tufts, its executive director of finance and strategy, said: “This new funding from NAB supports the group’s strategic plans to deliver more new homes in southern England.
“We will continue to look for similar opportunities to support our vision to improve people’s lives through high-quality homes and services.”
The bank was also involved in CHP’s raising of £100m of bank finance to support its development plans last week. Based in Chelmsford, Essex, the 10,000-home association arranged new finance from National Australia Bank as well as existing lenders Lloyds and Barclays.
Paul Edwards, deputy chief executive and chief financial officer at CHP, said: “CHP had two main aims in this process: maximising capacity for growth and increasing liquidity in these uncertain times.
“I’m delighted to say that we have achieved both – building on our strong relationships with existing lenders Lloyds and Barclays and starting a new relationship with National Australia Bank, too.”
Paul Stevens, managing director at consultancy Centrus, which helped arrange the finance, added: “CHP has achieved a truly excellent result, enhancing existing strong banking relationships including unlocking additional development capacity at negligible cost, while at the same time establishing a new relationship with NAB [National Australia Bank] which fits well with the overall treasury mix and enables strategically important diversification of funding.”
