News Article
Nationwide strengthens relationsip with One Housing Group
Society supports Group with £45 million funding
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Nationwide Commercial is continuing its long-standing relationship with the London-based One Housing Group (OHG) by completing a deal to provide the Group with £45 million of additional loan facilities.
Completed by the Nationwide Housing Finance team in Northampton, this new funding will enable OHG to continue its development programme delivering new affordable homes in the Greater London region. In addition, the loan will allow the business to change its existing finance facilities, primarily reducing the number from four to two, in order to reflect recent changes in the Group's structure.
OHG is a leading investment partner of the Homes and Community Agency (HCA) and owns, develops and plays and integral part in regeneration projects across 26 London boroughs. Over the past two years, OHG has provided 2,500 new affordable homes. Flagship developments include the project to deliver around 800 affordable homes within the Kings Cross Central Project, one of the largest regeneration programmes in both the UK and Europe.
Martin Heys, Group Finance Director at One Housing Group, said: "We are delighted to continue our relationship with Nationwide by taking a further loan facility of £45 million. The new deal will enable us to continue to develop affordable housing across London for those that need it. As regular supporters to the sector and having worked with them for over twenty years, the Nationwide team clearly understands the specialist area in which we operate. The length and strength of our relationship means that we don't just consider them our lender but a trusted partner in the business. As a result, the whole process from making the initial approach to completion of the facility and securing the first drawdown was quick and stress free."
Bryce Glover, divisional director for Nationwide Commercial, said: "OHG is a great business, which has an extremely knowledgeable and experienced management team. Throughout our twenty-two year relationship with OHG, we have always stressed our commitment to the business and the sector and this latest funding provides ample demonstration of that. The coming few years will provide the Group with enormous growth and development opportunities, and we look forward to offering the support needed to turn those opportunities into a reality."
This transaction was led by Nationwide's Senior Lending Manager, Penny Steel.
Notes to editors:
About Nationwide Commercial
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A leading lender in the UK commercial property, social housing and PFI markets with a loan book in excess of £22 billion.
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Customers range from housing associations to private property investors to institutional funds and specialist property firms to major public limited companies.
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Nationwide has committed over £2 billion to the UK PFI/PPP sector to over 80 separate projects including the first affordable housing PFI.
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Leading player in UK Social Infrastructure projects (ranked 2nd in the Infrastructure Journal 2009 League Table for Mandated Lead Arrangers).
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Nationwide Commercial is a leading lender to affordable housing providers becoming the first to commit over £9 billion to the sector.
About Nationwide Building Society
Nationwide is the world's largest building society as well as the second largest savings provider and a top-three provider of mortgages in the UK. It is also a major provider of current accounts, credit cards, ISAs and personal loans. Nationwide has around 15 million members.
Since the credit crunch began in 2007, Nationwide has remained profitable against a very difficult economic environment. In the half year ending September 2011 Nationwide made a strong underlying profit of £172 million - up 17% from the previous year. Its strong financial performance and prudent business model means that Nationwide is included in Global Finance magazine's Top 50 Safest Banks in the World.
Nationwide has around 700 branches and customers can manage their finances in branch, on the telephone, internet and post. The Society has around 16,000 employees. Nationwide's head office is in Swindon with administration centres based in Northampton, Bournemouth and Dunfermline. The Society also has a number of call centres across the UK.