International law firm Trowers & Hamlins has advised Surrey and Sussex based housing provider Raven Housing Trust on the real estate aspects of their private placement and loan facility package worth £300 million.
Raven was formed in 2002 by the transfer of council homes from Reigate & Banstead Borough Council. Since then, it has developed more than 1,000 new affordable homes and has a growing development pipeline of new homes. This sustainability-linked funding will be used to help Raven deliver its plan to build more than 630 homes by 2026, as well as support the organisation with its net zero-carbon commitments.
The 7,000-home housing association has refinanced and secured new long-term debt to support its corporate plan of getting all its homes to a minimum of EPC rating C by 2030, and then to net zero-carbon by 2050.
The funding consists of a £130 million private placement provided by the Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), £145m restructured and new debt from Lloyds Bank – including a new £50 million revolving credit facility – and a further new £25 million revolving credit facility from Barclays Bank.
Trowers acted to uplift the valuation of existing properties which the Association acquired from a number of Local Authorities. Following the uplift exercise, Trowers also acted on the reallocation of over 1300 properties to secure the private placement.
Katie Dyer, Real Estate Partner at Trowers & Hamlins, commented:
"I am delighted that Trowers & Hamlins were able to support Raven in their mission to increase the value of their stock and secure funding for them to deliver much needed affordable homes and to meet their EPC and carbon net zero goals."
Mark Baker, Financial Director at Raven, said:
“We are delighted to have secured such competitive additional funding to continue providing new homes, to meet the affordable housing need in our local area. We look forward to working with new and existing funders in meeting our sustainability ambitions for current and future homes.”