Charity bond raises £27m for housing development
Howard Lake | 23 April 2015 | News
A retail charity bond offer has closed after hitting its target of £27 million earlier than expected. The funds will be used by Hightown Praetorian & Churches Housing Association for its housing development programme, providing affordable homes across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire.
The charitable association, which manages over 4,400 homes, as well as providing housing and support to vulnerable people, expected the bond offer to run from 31 March to 27 April. Instead they were able to close it on 17 April.
Half of bond investors are individuals
The bonds pay a fixed rate of interest of 4.4% a year and are expected to mature in 2025.
Eight institutional investors provided around £13.5 million, with the other half coming from individual retail investors.
Retail Charity Bonds
This is the second bond to be issued through the Retail Charity Bonds platform created by Allia, the charity that specialises in developing social investment opportunities, in association with global investment bank Canaccord Genuity.
Tim Jones, Chief Executive of Allia, said:
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“Once again we are pleased to see such a strong interest from investors in this opportunity to invest for financial return and a positive social impact. This bond means that Hightown will be able to build much-needed housing and provide even more support in its local community.”
Photo: Green Monopoly houses by Sai Yeung Chan on Shutterstock.com
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.