This was a complex transaction involving the restructure of KHT’s existing loan facilities and included a £90m US private placement and secures funding for KHT’s future affordable housing development programme. The US private placement builds on the success of ACS completing its first publicly listed bond deal worth £250m on behalf of Walsall Housing Group as well as previous private placements for Shropshire Housing Group and Wulvern Housing.
The funding work for the US private placement was underpinned by a full due diligence exercise for the housing stock transfer properties being used as security for the private placement investors. Arvin Bhamra led the property due diligence team which has, over the past six months, charged over 30,500 units with an aggregate value of almost £600m. The team has delivered an impressive average turnaround time of 12 weeks from instruction to completion on securitisation work.
Natalie Singh, who led the ACS team, said:
“The KHT debt restructure reflects the opportunities for registered providers to access debt from the capital markets and at the same time gain some freedom from historic, restrictive facility agreement undertakings. KHT is now in a position to pursue its development agenda from a position of financial and operational strength.”
Tony Allen, Executive Director said:
“The parts played by both Natalie Singh and Arvin Bhamra on this significant transaction for KHT cannot be overstated.
Beyond the provision of first class legal advice, they were always available, supportive and highly commercial in everything they did. Their consistently positive and cheerful approach was much needed at times.
A tight timescale, essential to hit our target, was achieved not least as a result of their persistence and attention to detail. It was a real pleasure to work with them”
Investment to strengthen the team
ACS is also pleased to announce the recent appointment of Jon Coane who joins the firm as a Partner on 1st June 2015 to work alongside the Head of the Funding, Natalie Singh. Jon, who is currently National Head of Funding at Bevan Brittan, has extensive experience in funding and finance work including bank finance, project finance, education finance, social housing finance and property development finance. Jon's experience includes advising local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships on funding, advising registered providers on joint venture funding and social impact bonds and advising infrastructure investors and funders on funding PPP projects. He has been the lead adviser on some of the most important PFI and PPP projects in the UK.
A growing profile
The past 2 years have been extremely successful for the ACS Funding and Finance team as they continue to build their profile in the sector. The team have completed in excess of 45 funding transactions on behalf of registered provider borrowers (amounting to in excess of £1bn of new borrowing in total). These include:
Click on the link below to see a selection of the transactions we have advised on. This also illustrates some of the clients we have worked for over the past 2 years and provides further details of the Funding and Finance Team at ACS.
Anthony Collins Solicitors Funding and Finance Team
For more information
Please contact Natalie Singh.
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