North East housing association Thirteen group has secured a cash injection of £100m from high profile UK and US investors.
The group, which is the largest housing association in the region, plans to use the investment to deliver its development programme over the next five years.
Heather Ashton, Thirteen’s executive director of resources, said: “This is fantastic news for Thirteen as it means we’ve secured long term funding at a very low, fixed cost that will help us to realise our growth and development ambitions.
“We’re really pleased with the feedback we received from investors throughout the process. It was extremely positive, and their confidence in Thirteen’s management team and governance has resulted in a fantastic outcome for our first private placement.”
The £100m private placement has been spread over a number of tranches with 25-year to 35-year maturities and a weighted average cost of funds of 2.86%.
The money will be used by the Stockton-based group to strengthen its finances but also to make improvements to its housing stock.
Ian Wardle, Thirteen’s chief executive, said: “Over the next five years, we’ve pledged to invest more than £1bn into improving homes for existing customers, building new homes, making improvements to neighbourhoods and delivering support services offered to customers.
“By broadening our funding base in this way, we can continue to invest in existing customers as well as building the new homes that future customers want and need.
“Earlier this year, we were also delighted to be named as a Wave Partner by Homes England, only one of two partners based in the North East, to help us further extend our pipeline of affordable homes across its operating area.”
Sohail Singal, associate director at JCRA – part of Chatham Financial, added: “We’re delighted to have arranged the debut private placement for Thirteen, the largest Housing Association in the North East.
“The funding will provide Thirteen with the ability to meet its development goals of building homes in an area that very much needs them.
"The deal represents a positive result in a difficult market and highlights investor appetite to work with strong, well governed housing associations in the North East of England.”
