Legal & General has provided a further £353m (€396.1m) financing to support UK rail services.
The UK insurer said Legal & General Investment Management’s real asset division is providing £183m long term debt investment, on behalf of clients including Legal & General Retirement (LGR), to help finance a fleet of 665 Bombardier Aventra trains that will be leased to Abellio East Anglia franchise from 2019.
The financing is part of a total £835m commitment made from a group of lenders to finance this fleet for Angel Trains Group, outside of the credit-rated group.
Legal & General Investment Management’s real asset division is also providing £170m of long term debt, on behalf of clients including LGR, to support Corelink Rail Infrastructure, a new rolling stock lessor platform jointly owned by Deutsche Asset Management and Infracapital, into the market.
This financing is part of a £571m debt package provided by institutional investors and banks.
The loan will help supply more that 400 vehicles to be manufactured by Bombardier and CAF for use on the UK’s West Midlands franchise.
Legal & General, which made its first rolling stock investment in October 2016, said it has completed a total of more than £550m of investment to date to the sector.
Hayley Rees, the head of direct investments at LGR, said: “By helping to finance significant improvements to Britain’s rail network, we can use UK pension money to help to increase capacity, relieve congestion and provide better passenger facilities, while matching our long term income liabilities.
”Good transport infrastructure can enhance labour mobility and increase economic growth. This is great for business and great for our customers.”
Tom Sumpster, the head of infrastructure iinance at LGIM Real Assets, said: “These two deals further expand LGIM’s clients’ exposure to essential infrastructure projects in the UK, offering them long-term, stable cash flows and in both cases, alongside experienced infrastructure asset owners.
”Our ability to deploy capital into strategic assets is testament to our holistic real assets strategy and the deep cross sector expertise that we have now embedded into our business.”
