You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
The Guinness Partnership issues £400m bond at 2% coupon
The Guinness Partnership has issued a £400m, 35-year bond at a coupon of 2% following a single day of marketing.
The 65,000-home association said the bond was “significantly oversubscribed, demonstrating continued investor confidence in Guinness and in the social housing sector”.
A total of £250m was issued to investors, with a further £150m retained, Guinness said.
Phil Day, group finance director at Guinness, said: “The very strong demand for our bond and the final spread over gilts of 145 basis points that was achieved shows the capital markets remain supportive of housing providers.
READ MORE
“We increased the size of our bond during execution, which was reflective of the strength of the order book. These funds will support our development aspirations to deliver 5,500 new homes by 2024 and 12,500 over the next 10 years.”
Barclays, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and NatWest Markets acted as joint bookrunners for the deal, with Newbridge acting as treasury advisors.
Guinness becomes the third housing association to issue an own-name bond since the coronavirus outbreak caused upheaval in the markets.
Optivo led the way, issuing a £250m bond at the start of April, followed by Sanctuary which secured a £350m, 30-year bond.
Smaller associations Thrive Homes and Melin Homes also raised £25m and £10m respectively via aggregator MORhomes.
Guinness was one of several housing associations to be confirmed as part of the government’s Corporate Bond Purchase Scheme, which was doubled by chancellor Rishi Sunak in response to the pandemic.
