Investment boosts Longhurst Group growth ambitions

Longhurst Group has secured significant investment that will help us achieve our ambitious plans to build more homes and continue to do everything we can to improve people’s lives.

We have raised £100m following the sale of our 2,043 retained bonds, which were originally issued by our funding vehicle Libra 2 Treasury PLC in 2018.

The bonds were launched on Wednesday, 4 March after our Chief Executive Julie Doyle and Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer Rob Griffiths held a series of investor meetings in London and Edinburgh last week.

The bond sale was four and a half times oversubscribed, which means that bids totalling over £400 million were received. This level of interest helped us to secure a better borrowing rate as we achieved an all in reoffer yield of 2.339 percent.

This impressive level of investor appetite was based on our strong performance in a number of areas, including rent arrears, tenancy sustainment, development and shared ownership sales, combined with the clear and ambitious vision of our Improving Lives strategy.  

Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer, Rob Griffiths, said: “We are very pleased to have achieved such a significant level of investment and at a really competitive rate.

Having such strong foundations is something we can all be proud of as it will help us continue as a leading housing group and developer while investing in our communities and enhancing our services to do everything we can to improve people’s lives.

“The sale of these retained bonds provides the Group with further liquidity that ensures we are in an even stronger position to realise our development ambitions and build around 750 new homes each year between now and 2025.  

“As illustrated by the level of investor appetite, as well as the recent retention of our G1/V1 status, our strong financial footing, alongside strong governance and a robust approach to managing risk provides the solid foundations that will enable us to realise our future ambitions.

“Having such strong foundations is something we can all be proud of as it will help us continue as a leading housing group and developer while investing in our communities and enhancing our services to do everything we can to improve people’s lives.”