Audley Group, a retirement living provider, has announced the completion of a five-year, £28.5 mln (€33 mln) financing facility, provided by Federated Hermes, a global investment manager.

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The loan facility will focus on six fully developed and sold-out villages within Audley Group’s portfolio.
 
The villages represent a range of maturities, from twenty-three-year-old Willicombe Park to Audley Redwood, which has been open for five years. The financing facility utilises operating surpluses, meaning the more cash flow the villages generate, the more that can be advanced.   
 
This financing facility is the first of its kind in the retirement living sector, where funding has to date focused on development and stock financing.
 
Gary Burton, COO & CFO, Audley Group, said: 'Our well-established track record as long-term operators of Integrated Retirement Communities means that we are constantly striving to invest in both our current villages while also securing and developing our next sites. A holistic approach to the way IRCs secure financing is necessary if we are to succeed in our goal of increasing the provision of units for the UK’s aging population. Our focus is to finance mature and maturing villages (and their secure and upward inflating incomes) to invest into new villages to bring more units to market.'
 
Vincent Nobel, head of Asset Based Lending, Federated Hermes, said: Our continuous effort to find strong assets managed by the best sponsors has resulted in the collaboration with Audley Group. We have structured a bespoke financing solution for some of the more established villages that Audley manages across the country. We have been consistently impressed with the high-quality of the product Audley offers, and look forward to working together with the team at Audley over the coming years.'
 
This financing agreement follows the announcement in August 2023 that Audley Group and Senior Living Investment Partners (SLIP) agreed to acquire 100% of the long leasehold interest in a plot within the Brent Cross Town (BXT) masterplan on which to develop a new retirement village as part of Audley Group’s Mayfield Villages. SLIP is a £200 mln partnership between Pension Insurance Corporation and Octopus Real Estate.