Winckworth Sherwood have advised Longhurst Group on a £100m retained further bonds issuance, sold to an agreed investor over three dates pre-agreed in a forward purchase agreement.
Winckworth Sherwood LLP’s Banking & Finance and Charging teams acted for Longhurst Group on its £100m retained further bonds issuance, which completed in March 2022. The new outstanding amount of the bond is £350 million.
WS acted on both the 2018 original bonds and the forward purchase agreement (entered into in August 2021) in connection with the forward sale of such retained further bonds, which will be sold to an agreed investor over the course of three pre-agreed dates. The first of three future bond sales completed recently and our dedicated Social Housing Finance team continues to advise Longhurst on these sales, working closely with all stakeholders for an efficient and cost effective transaction. Our dedicated Charging team advised Longhurst on the reallocation and top up work to certify the titles used as security for this further bond issuance.
The secured bonds were issued through a treasury vehicle, Libra (Longhurst Group) Treasury No 2 Plc, with a coupon rate of 3.25%. The proceeds of the bonds will be on-lent to Longhurst Group.
Rob Griffiths, Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer at Longhurst Group, said: “We were very pleased to have worked with Lucy and the team at Winckworth Sherwood again on the further bond issuance, and we are extremely happy with the results. We will use the proceeds from the further bond issue to support our development programme and the next stage of our delivery of new affordable homes. We were expertly advised through all stages of the transaction by Winckworth Sherwood.”
This transaction follows on from Winckworth Sherwood advising Longhurst Group on their group restructure in 2019, which saw the four group RPs being collapsed into a single RP.
Lucy Grimwood, Social Housing Finance Partner at Winckworth Sherwood, said: “We were delighted to have assisted Longhurst on this forward purchase and further bond issue, and we look forward to working together on the future bond sales.”
WS Team: Lucy Grimwood, Kyriakoula Lemos, Jill O’Reilly, Patricia Umunna, Ruby Giblin, Annette Monthy, Jana Siebert, Sophie Pandit, Robin Dabydeen and Luke Sullivan