Pension funds insurer signs £40m deal with Northamptonshire housing association
A specialist insurer for defined benefit pension funds has invested £40m in debt issued by Northamptonshire housing association Greatwell Homes.
The Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), which has invested almost £1.5bn in social housing in total, has provided the funding with the drawdown deferred for up to three years, which means there is certainty for the cost of funding for the housing association.
Greatwell Homes, which was previously known as Wellingborough Homes, plans to use the money to develop 600 affordable homes to add to the 4,500 it already owns or manages in the area.
The housing association was established following a stock transfer from Wellingborough Council in 2007.
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The investment provided by the PIC is secured by a pool of housing assets and has been provided across four tranches, maturing in 2053, 2057 and two in 2058.
Julie Robinson, director of resources at Greatwell Homes, said: “We are very pleased to have completed on this transaction and because of the deferred structure, we have certainty that future funding will be delivered to us at a known cost.
“We can now confidently embark on delivering our new corporate plan development aspirations for 2019-2022 to build much-needed new homes in and around Northamptonshire.”
She praised the PIC for its flexible approach in developing a funding structure and helping the social landlord complete the transaction in a short amount of time.
The insurer manages pensions for FTSE 100 companies, multinationals and the public sector. It takes on pension schemes to guarantee payouts to members, investing the money in assets to generate returns.
