As a borrower, RCB gives you access to the public market and to raising fixed rate, medium-term finance. RCB bonds offer funding which is typically longer term than you may get from the banks, more flexible, and enables you to offer a mainstream institutional and retail-eligible investment, which can be held in ISAs and traded on London Stock Exchange.

Diverse and engaged investor base

There is growing demand for investment opportunities which offer social or environmental impact as well as a financial return. RCB was designed to tap into this market and has raised over £280m from a wide range of investors.

RCB’s bonds are listed, tradeable products that can be bought by institutions like pension funds and ethical funds; to date, the majority of institutional investors have bought bonds from at least three issues, spread across a wide range of impact themes. The bonds also have small minimum investment sizes, allowing individual private investors to invest in new issues for amounts starting from £500. Around one third of the funds raised by RCB have come through execution-only stockbrokers and wealth managers.

Building an investor community

Allia C&C supports RCB borrowers with ongoing investor relations through trading updates, investor presentations and site visits. Building these relationships helps borrowers raise new money from this investor community if, and when, further borrowing is required.

This can be achieved by RCB issuing more bonds than are needed and holding the additional bonds in a custody account. These ‘retained bonds’ can be sold to investors at a later date and the proceeds advanced to the borrower.

Several RCB borrowers have also raised funds through more than one bond issue and benefited from better terms when coming back to the market.

Raise your profile

Borrowing through RCB also has a marketing upside: retail bonds can attract significant publicity in financial media, taking the message of your activities, and the issues you address, to a wider audience.

Unsecured, unrestricted, uncomplicated: the benefits of RCB bonds

• They’re unsecured, so that while the value on your balance sheet covers all your unsecured borrowing, you can keep control and flexibility over your assets. This reduces the cost for borrowers, because providing security is expensive.  
• The loans are unrestricted, so that funding can be used however it’s needed, and you can control your business without needing anyone’s consent.
• They’re uncomplicated, because they are fixed rate and covenant-light funding, keeping life simple. In addition, while banks commonly want you to start repaying capital straight away, with a loan from RCB you will only pay interest during the term and repay the amount you borrowed at the end of the loan.

A streamlined process

RCB was designed to reduce the costs and simplify the process of raising funding through listed bonds. The company is a special purpose vehicle, which does nothing except issue bonds and lend the proceeds to charities and other impact organisations. It uses template documents and has established relationships with third parties, like the bond trustee, which reduces the legal fees of issuing listed bonds and makes it possible to raise funding within three months from start to finish.