Leading North East based wealth management and property lending specialist, Tier One Capital, has secured a £6.5m revolving credit facility from Shawbrook Bank for the TOC Property Backed Lending Trust PLC (PBLT).
The credit facility will help ensure the London Stock Exchange main market listed fund has the capital resources required to continue supporting residential and commercial property developers in the North and Scotland.
The new deal reinforces the continuing relationship between Shawbrook Bank and PBLT, which recently unveiled its latest investment strategy.
PBLT shareholders recently voted overwhelmingly to provide the fund with greater flexibility to support property developers, especially in the North East and Scotland, and a key priority of PBLT’s updated investment strategy is to enhance North East and Scottish housebuilders’ ability to meet government targets of building 300,000 new homes each year.
Shawbrook Bank has an established track record in providing loans to property developers and earlier this month (June) announced that, since the launch of its development finance offering in 2016, it has provided £1bn of funding support across 230 individual projects, delivering 3,500 residential houses and flats, more than 600 commercial units and 1,000 student rooms.
Ian McElroy, CEO of Tier One Capital, said: “Shawbrook’s substantial experience in the property development sector makes them the perfect partner as we respond to a significant uplift in the sector.
“There is also an appetite from investors, who have accumulated significant financial resources during the economic pause caused by the Covid pandemic, to support property developments, especially in the residential sector in the current climate.
He added: “Thanks to our collaboration with such a high calibre financial institution, as Shawbrook Bank, we are able to provide a financial structure that meets the objectives of PBLT’s shareholders.”
PBLT has set out a new sustainable dividend policy, which aims to provide 4p per share per year for shareholders (a current yield of over 4.5% per annum) with the potential for an additional year end special dividend depending on financial performance during the period. This will be a 33% increase on the 3p per share returned during the financial year ending 30 November 2020.