Whg secures £50m funding on the bond markets
Whg, the Walsall-based housing association, has raised £50 million on the money markets to back its plans to build thousands of new homes over the next four years.
It secured support from a range of pension and insurance companies on the bond market to raise new funding for the development programme.
Over the next four years whg plans to expand its Midlands presence to 18 local authority areas as it delivers up to 2,400 new homes. These will include affordable rent homes, rent-to-buy and shared ownership
The £50m, which follows a £250m fund raising on the bond market in 2014, will help fund whg’s development ambitions in the Midlands.
The new finance will complement the £22.1 million that whg secured from the Homes and Communities Agency under the Shared Ownership and Affordable Homes Programme in January this year.
Whg recently published strong financial results, with an operating surplus of £34.2m. Whg says its turnover continues to increase and has grown to over £100m.
The investment comes after Santander organised an investors breakfast on behalf of whg at Andaz Studio in London last month attended by chief executive Gary Fulford, corporate director of resources Martin Robertson, corporate director of operations Rob Gilham and Adam Wagner, whg's director of finance.
Mr Fulford said: “We are delighted to have sold this portion of the retained bond which will help us to build more high quality homes in the Midlands.
“We are in a strong financial position for the years to come and this additional finance will be used to deliver our ambitious corporate plan, which we launched earlier this year.”
Originally spun out of Walsall council's housing department as the Walsall Housing Group in 2003, whg is now one of the region's biggest housing providers with over 40,000 people in more than 20,000 properties.
