Leading North East property lending fund, TOC Property Backed Lending Trust PLC (PBLT) has confirmed the completion of a significant transaction and reached agreement on two new schemes, worth a combined £5.6m, as the company continues to grow its vital source of funding to the UK’s property development sector.
Managed by Newcastle-based wealth management and property lending specialists, Tier One Capital Ltd, PBLT has confirmed the successful conclusion of a £4.5m, four-year lending facility for a London-based wedding venue operator.
The funding was used to develop an award winning 1,000 capacity events venue. Over the term of this investment, PBLT received a return of 7.43% per annum, which was available for distribution to its shareholders, equating to a return in excess of £1m.
At the same time, PBLT has also confirmed its participation in two further transactions totalling £1.1m for the development of a hotel & office and a retail property project, both located in Glasgow.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange in early 2017, PBLT now has a current loan book of more than £27m across its portfolio of property projects, with a lending pipeline of £14m, which will go towards new investment opportunities, many of which are planned for the North East of England.
The company has also announced that its unaudited Net Asset Value per share, as at 31 August 2020, on a cum-income basis was 82.96 pence, which represents an increase of 1.495% on the net asset value as at 31 May 2020.
Brendan O’Grady, Fund Manager for PBLT, said “We are delighted to update our investors on our latest activity.
“The completion and repayment of the £4.5m lending facility is particularly pleasing as it was the largest loan in our portfolio and has been an excellent investment project for PBLT. Given the ongoing pressures to the hospitality sector we are pleased to have received all the interest and a full repayment of capital.
“This also highlights the robust approach taken in our due diligence processes and is a testament to our commitment to provide funding for those projects with strong, credible and experienced management teams.
“We also look forward to redeploying these funds in the near future and continue to build on the recent successes we are seeing in the alternative finance sector.”
Ian McElroy, Chief Executive at Tier One Capital, added “It is very pleasing to see activity in the property market in the current climate, and our direct lending pipeline continues to grow as we see more developers requiring funding turn to the alternative finance space.
“Whist we have implemented further focused stress testing for potential investments during recent months, the credibility of the management teams we are working with continues to strengthen, and we look forward to providing the market with further updates as we continue to remain active over the coming months.”