Civitas Social Housing has secured a new seven-year term interest only loan facility of £84.55m, it announced on Friday, from M&G Investment Management.
The FTSE 250 company said the facility was priced at 2.75% above a fixed rate, set by reference to the LIBOR swap rate of the loan term, and would be repayable seven years from the date of utilisation.
It was secured by an existing portfolio of specialist supported living assets.
The facility was designed to support the company’s continuing growth plans, with Civitas intending to use the proceeds of the facility during 2021 to enable the purchase of high-quality properties that form part of the pipeline of new transactions.
That, in turn, was expected to further enhance both rental income and in due course dividend cover.
The drawdown of the facility would increase the Company’s loan-to-value ratio, based on gross portfolio assets, to 34.6%, maintaining its ongoing objective of a preferred gearing level of around 35% of gross portfolio asset value, with a ceiling of 40% of gross portfolio asset value.
“We are delighted to have secured this new loan facility from M&G, a leading institutional lender with extensive experience and understanding of the social housing sector,” said chairman Michael Wrobel.
“We expect this loan to be utilised over the coming months to bring forward our extensive pipeline of high quality properties and continue to deliver on our dual mission of stable long-term income for our shareholders and excellent long-term accommodation for the residents in our properties.”
At 0817 GMT, shares in Civitas were down 0.37% at 107.2p.
