Radius Housing, Northern Ireland’s largest housing association, has secured £105m through a private placement deal which includes investment from North America.
The 13,000-home landlord said it clinched the investment from a “range of UK and North American investors” and expects to get the funds next year, subject to due diligence.
It claims the private placement, which involves the sales of bonds to private investors, is the first by a Northern Ireland housing association.
Radius said it will increase its current target of building 400 social and affordable homes a year as a result of the deal.
It marks the latest housing association to secure US for investment in recent times. In August, London landlord One Housing borrowed £150m from North American investors and Bromford bagged £100m from five US backers in March.
Alan Thomson, director of finance and ICT at Radius, said: “Choosing to seek investors through private placement has given Radius an opportunity to secure a deal which supports our development goals by giving a longer repayment term at very competitive rates.”
It comes after the association last year agreed a £50m facility with Barclays for an 800-home development.
The landlord, which was formed in 2017 from the merger of Fold Housing and Helm Housing, said an A1 rating from Moody’s helped it engage with 20 investors from the UK and US for the placement.
Mr Thomson added: “Securing a Moody’s rating was particularly important, given this was Northern Ireland’s first social housing placement.”
In its last full year to the end of March 2019, Radius reported a 48% jump in post-tax surplus to £9.1m off a revenue of £89.7m.
Source: insidehousing
