Lloyds Bank has made a new loan under its green lending initiative, to UK technology park operator Manchester Science Partnerships (MSP).
In return for cutting the annual energy intensity of all its assets by 3.5% per year, increasing renewably-sourced energy by a further 10% and spending £600,000 on improving its campuses, the borrower will get a margin discount on its three-year funding package.
Lloyds typically offers a 20 basis point discount to clients qualifying under its green initiative.
The €57 mln (£50 mlm) facility is the bank’s first in North West England. It refinances the existing loan agreement for the Citylabs and Manchester Science Park campuses and extends to the recently-completed 70,000 sq ft Bright Building (pictured) which is on Manchester Science Park.
MSP operates three campuses in north west England with about 2 m sq ft of space. The company’s managing director, Tom Renn, said: ‘The discount we have been able to access allows us the headroom to further strengthen our assets, particularly as we look to start on site with Citylabs 2.0 and 3.0.’
Lloyds’ head of Scotland and the North, Allan Mckenzie, said the bank has a long-standing relationship with MSP’s largest shareholder, north-England-focused private property company Bruntwood. MSP’s other shareholders include Manchester University, Manchester Metropolitan University, a local NHS Trust and three local councils.
The Bright Building is home to digital incubation hub Mi-IDEA. A collaboration between MSP and leading technology company Cisco, Mi-IDEA is a new post-accelerator centre to support start-ups to scale and to provide a space for co-innovation in the region.
The building is also the centre of operations and demonstrator for CityVerve: Innovate UK’s Internet of Things city demonstrator, in which MSP is a lead partner.
