Vivid secures £150m private placement from US investor

The association, which was formed just under a year ago from the merger of First Wessex and Sentinel, has announced that it has secured the placement from Pricoa Capital Group, the private capital arm of PGIM.

PGIM is in turn the investment management business of US-headquartered Prudential Financial.

With a weighted average life of 22.5 years and a mix of maturities up to 30 years, Vivid has achieved a weighted average all-in coupon “close to three per cent”.

It includes £60m maturing in 10 years, and £90m over 30 years.

Duncan Brown, director of finance and technology at Vivid, said: “We wanted to maintain a fully funded business plan through a period of potential volatility so we’ve acted now to provide greater certainty. This will help us achieve our ambition of building 1,200 new homes each year.”

Traderisks acted as arranger and Vivid was advised by JCRA and Winckworth Sherwood. The funder’s legal adviser was Morgan Lewis.

John Coleman, director at Traderisks, told Social Housing that the deal would supply Vivid with additional liquidity.

He said: “Securing this excellent outcome was made possible by engaging bilaterally with investors capable of providing large commitments.”

Vivid has more than 30,000 homes under management and turnover of over £200m.

It brought together 16 funders for the merger and inherited private placement deals from both First Wessex and Sentinel.

First Wessex secured placements of £48m and £25m in 2012. The deals, with maturities of up to 30 years, priced between 200 and 205 basis points, with an all-in cost of funds of 4.61 per cent. Sentinel also agreed a private placement with a mix of UK and US investors in 2012 with an all-in cost of 5.13 per cent and a spread of 200bps above the reference gilt.

Pricoa provided a £100m shelf facility for Stonewater last year.