Great Places raises further £18m
NORTH West social housing group Great Places Housing has raised a further £18m on the bond market.
The 17,000-home not-for-profit organisation based on Princess Parkway, south Manchester, retained £50m worth of bonds following a £200m debut issue in October 2012.
It issued £32m last December and has now sold the final chunk at a spread of 1.02% over the gilt, the price of government borrowing. Great Places will use the money to support its development programme.
It said the the deal, which had an all-in cost of just over 4%, represents a significant reduction in its finance costs.
Finance director Phil Elvy said: “I am delighted with the result. A spread of 102 bps [basis points], combined with the underlying gilt of 2.982%, produced an incredibly low all-in rate of 4.002% – one of the lowest rates ever achieved by any registered provider.
“This outcome fully justifies the decision not to fully issue all of the £50m retained bond last November. The confidence shown in us by the investors and the continued strong credit ratings are the consequence of being a financially strong organisation.”
Great Places had a turnover of just over £85m in the last financial year and made a surplus of £9.3m.
Santander, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Canada were book runners on the issue. Great Places was advised by Capita.
