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Welsh housing association secures £95m in funding
A South Wales housing association has secured £95m of private funding and fully restructured its bank debts.
Linc-Cymru, which owns around 3,900 homes, hopes the new and restructured funding will allow it to build more than 1,600 homes over the next 10 years.
The package includes a £75m private placement from two institutional investors, which have not been named but include one newcomer to social housing in Wales.
JCRA, a financial risk advisor which assisted Linc with the deal, said this is one of the largest placements secured in the Welsh sector.
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The placement will be issued in two tranches, one six months deferred and one 13 months deferred, in a bid to reduce Linc’s short-term costs.
It includes staggered maturities in 2044, 2048 and 2054, extending the weighted average life of the landlord’s debt portfolio to just less than 20 years.
A £20m short-term flexible loan facility has also been agreed with Handelsbanken.
The association has also renegotiated covenants across its £100m existing bank loan portfolio, reducing the lending margin on some.
Scott Sanders, chief executive of Linc, said: “This significant funding boost will help us to provide more homes for those that need them most.
“Affordable housing plays an important role in providing a safe and secure environment for people to live, as well as helping people to improve their health and well-being.”
Alex Morgan, associate director at JCRA, said: “We have worked closely with Linc to develop a funding strategy that not only creates value but also unlocks funding capacity and ultimately supports the delivery of more affordable homes for South Wales.”
