Bruntwood SciTech extends bank lending to £580m
Bruntwood SciTech has secured an additional £100m funding package from Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander UK – taking their total facilities to £580m.
Bruntwood SciTech’s financial package has been extended to three-years and consists of a £530m investment facility – of which £450m is a term loan and £80m is a revolving credit facility – and a £50m development facility.
The funding terms of the refinance include a commitment to improving the energy efficiency of buildings; a year-on-year reduction in carbon intensity; a reduction in embodied carbon across new build developments, and an increase in renewable energy procurement.
Priority projects following the increased lending are named as No.3 Circle Square within Manchester’s Oxford Road Corridor knowledge quarter, further refurbishments and improvements at Alderley Park; the 90,000sqft office development at Pall Mall on King Street in Manchester city centre; and continued investment into Sister -Bruntwood SciTech’s joint venture with The University of Manchester.
In February the joint venture between the property business Bruntwood, insurance giant Legal & General and the Greater Manchester Pension Fund (GMPF) published accounts which revealed a sharp fall in the market valuations of its property portfolio that contributed to a pre-tax loss of £163 million (2023: £111 million loss).
With additions from Bruntwood’s estate, the portfolio is worth £1.5 billion in gross assets (2023: £864 million), distributed across six cities: Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cambridge, and most recently London, where they have 11 campuses and 31 city centre “innovation hubs”.
All new developments are now net zero in both construction and operation, the venture claims. They also now provide 100% renewable energy to all shared spaces across their whole portfolio, supported through their investment in a wind farm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Lloyds acted as Sustainability Coordinator. HSBC Bank plc acted as the Facility Agent.
Hill Dickinson acted on behalf of the Lenders and Addleshaw Goddard for Bruntwood SciTech, with CBRE and JLL providing valuations.
