Aviva Investors has entered into a £75m (€83.2m) private corporate debt facility with UK housing association Settle Group.
Settle manages over 9,000 properties across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire, and financing is will help the not-for-profit housing association meet its 2024 goal of at least 1,500 new homes.
Aviva Investors, which is providing the 30-year financing on behalf of the Aviva UK Life annuity business, said the debt facility is part of its plan to generate “long income exposure, which provides cashflows to back the liabilities commitments” of its institutional client base.
The latest deal is the second private placement that Aviva Investors has made into the social housing sector in the past month, having entered into a £60m, 30-year financing agreement with South Wales-based Coastal Housing Group last month.
Munawer Shafi, head of structured and private debt at Aviva Investors, said: “We are very happy to have completed this deal with settle and further our investment in the UK’s social housing programme, at a time when the provision of such schemes is increasingly important for at-risk income groups across the country.
“The quasi-sovereign nature of social housing makes it an attractive defensive sector in the current environment, particularly when it comes to proven operators such as settle, which we expect to deliver strong long-term performance within the overall portfolio.”
Ashish Dafria, CIO, Aviva UK Life, said: “We are pleased to support settle’s ambition to increase the supply of affordable homes in their regions of focus.
“Coupled with this, settle’s community work and its commitment to continue to invest to ensure safe and energy-efficient homes also supports our desire for investment opportunities that seek to address key sustainability and ESG criteria.”
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