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RCB has issued a combined £65m of bonds for Hightown Housing Association. This total comprises a £27m issuance in 2015 with coupon of 4.4%. Following the success of this first issue, in 2017 RCB issued a further £38m of bonds, including £6.5m retained bonds, with a 4% coupon.

About Hightown Housing Association

Hightown is a charitable housing association, operating in Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, aiming to help people who need support and care or who cannot afford to buy or rent a home at market values. The housing association has a strong development focus and currently has 8,900 properties. In 2023/24 Hightown developed 664 affordable homes.

Bonds issued

The Hightown Housing Association Limited 4% fixed rate Bonds due 2027 pay a fixed rate of interest of 4% per annum, payable twice yearly on 30 April and 31 October of each year. The Bonds are expected to mature on 31 October 2027 with a final legal maturity on 31 October 2029.

London Stock Exchange listing

Bond details

Issue date:

31 October 2017

Expected maturity:

31 October 2027

Final legal maturity:

31 October 2029

Amount issued:

£38m

Coupon type:

Fixed

Coupon:

4%

Frequency:

Semi-annual

Payment dates:

30 April, 31 October

ISIN:

XS1695541299

SEDOL:

BYWH0D9

LSE Ticker:

HTO2

Bloomberg ticker:

RCHBLN 4 10/31/2027

Bond documents

The Hightown Praetorian & Churches Housing Association Limited 4.4% fixed rate Bonds due 2025 pay a fixed rate of interest of 4.4% per annum, payable twice yearly on 30 October and 30 April of each year. The Bonds are expected to mature on 30 April 2025 with a final legal maturity on 30 April 2027.

London Stock Exchange listing

Bond details

Issue date:

30 April 2015

Expected maturity:

30 April 2025

Final legal maturity:

30 April 2027

Amount issued:

£27m

Coupon type:

Fixed

Coupon:

4.4%

Frequency:

Semi-annual

Payment dates:

30 April, 30 October

ISIN:

XS1200788369

SEDOL:

BWT68S6

LSE Ticker:

HTOP

Bloomberg ticker:

RCHBLN 4.4 04/30/2025

Bond documents

Working with Allia C&C

The opportunity to unlocking funding from RCB investors came about almost a decade ago when Hightown was looking for innovative forms of finance to support its ambitious development programme. Hightown was particularly attracted to RCB as it offered a form of unsecured lending, says David Skinner, Director of Financial Services.

He explains: “RCB was a great niche product for us. We have a number of development projects going on at any given time but banks traditionally only wanted to advance money against completed units, which wasn’t helpful for us.”

“So we were trying to find a way of actually using some of our land bank and works in progress as security and the RCB platform allowed us to do that.”

David says the RCB bonds have “stood the test of time” and that Hightown is due to pay off the loan from its first bond issue next year. This was Hightown’s first foray into the debt capital markets and represented an opportunity to gauge investor interest and was a precursor to direct market access later.

Allia C&C had the knowledge of what was needed, having already raised funds for a housing association. They knew the market, what we needed to tell investors and how to present our story,” David says.

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Social Impact Report 2023

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