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Care specialist becomes first housing association to make all bank debt unsecured
Anchor Hanover, England’s largest not-for-profit provider of housing and care for older people, has refinanced its entire debt portfolio to an unsecured basis including a new £300m loan.
The move makes Anchor Hanover the first housing association to move its banking facilities to a fully unsecured basis, which the group said will allow it to benefit from the “long-term stability from debt capital markets that will underpin its ambitious growth plans”.
A key component of the refinancing is the group’s new £300m unsecured syndicated sustainability-linked revolving credit facility (RCF).
The group of banks providing the RCF are Barclays, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, National Australia Bank (NAB) and Santander UK, with Barclays acting as global co-ordinator and NAB acting as sustainability co-ordinator.
Unsecured debt has no collateral – such as social housing stock – attached to it, meaning the loans are granted based on Anchor Hanover’s creditworthiness.
As part of the refinancing, 54,000-home Anchor Hanover also gained a long-term A+ credit rating from Standard & Poor’s – one of the highest in the sector.
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Sarah Jones, chief financial officer at Anchor Hanover, said: “We are delighted to have agreed the first sustainability-linked unsecured banking portfolio in the sector, with current and new bank partners.
“This refinancing represents excellent value for Anchor Hanover and will underpin our strategy to provide more and better homes, to offer more opportunities for colleagues, to be more efficient, and to be a more influential voice for people in later life.
“The ESG [environmental, social and governance] component underlines our commitment to sustainability for our current and future residents, colleagues, and the communities in which they live.”
Phil Jenkins, managing director at Centrus, the advisor on the refinancing, said: “We are thrilled to have worked with Anchor Hanover on this innovative refinancing, which is designed to meet Anchor Hanover’s ambitious growth plans in providing housing and care services to older people.
“In establishing the first fully unsecured banking portfolio in the sector, Anchor Hanover will benefit from strengthened liquidity, improved asset efficiency and reduced operational risk.”
“Additionally, we are delighted to have structured the refinancing for Anchor Hanover in ways which reinforce our commitment to sustainability and ESG.”
A number of housing associations have taken out sustainability-linked loans in the past year, and major high street bank Lloyds has said it will invest £500m in ESG-focused social housing projects.
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