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Bromford has A1 rating confirmed as merger set to go live
Bromford Housing Group has had its A1 rating confirmed with ratings agency Moody’s, just days ahead of its merger with Merlin Housing Society.
Moody’s has kept the 39,000-home landlord on a negative outlook, however, saying that the new merged organisation “will continue the direction of travel undertaken by BHG [Bromford] as a standalone entity, with financial metrics weakening from previously exceptional levels”.
Moody’s changed its outlook for Bromford in April, just a week before the landlord issued a £300m bond.
Meanwhile, Merlin has posted a record £15m surplus in its last set of financial results before its merger with Bromford, which will go live on Monday 2 July.
The surplus was £2m up on 2016/17 and helped produce an operating margin of 35%.
The 8,600-home association also increased the number of affordable homes it completed in the year by 46% to 186, with 100 of these being for social rent. It began work on a further 326 homes.
Ben Taylor, finance director at Merlin, said: “Combining forces with Bromford will create an organisation stretching from the West Midlands to North Somerset that owns nearly 40,000 homes and employs over 200 neighbourhood coaches working with our customers and communities.
“We will have the funds and the talent to deliver even more homes across our new expanded operating area. We plan to invest £1.5bn over the next decade to develop 14,000 new homes.”
The two housing associations announced plans to create Bromford Merlin last December. Since then, Bromford has also revealed it is in merger talks with Gloucestershire landlord Severn Vale Housing.
If the deal goes through, the association will own 44,000 homes and have a development pipeline of 15,000 homes over 10 years.
