Retail Charity Bond raises £50m for retirement village provider

Retirement village provider Belong has raised £50m through its Belong Limited Retail Charity Bond.

The Bond, which was offered by Retail Charity Bonds PLC, will be used to fund Belong’s charitable objectives and develop additional Belong villages.

Tracey Stakes, CEO of Belong, commented: “Belong villages offer a pioneering approach to later-life care that’s led by an individual’s needs rather than an institutions’ restrictions. As the number of people in the UK living with dementia continues to increase, so too does the demand for innovative solutions to where they can live and be cared for in a safe community environment.

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“We’re therefore delighted to see such strong support for Belong’s business model, with the success of the bond enabling us to welcome a greater number of older people into more of our villages.”

Belong will borrow £35m initially when the bonds are issued on June 20, with a further £15m of ‘retained bonds’ being created for sale at a later date.

The Bond is the eighth and one of the largest to be issued through Allia’s Retail Charity Bonds platform since it was launched in 2014, taking the total raised through the platform to date to £192.5m.

Phil Caroe, Director of Social Finance for Allia, said: “The success of this latest Retail Charity Bond – one of our largest issues to date – is a powerful endorsement from the market of the quality of Belong’s business and demonstrates the continuing strength of demand for ethical investment opportunities.

“Allia’s Retail Charity Bonds platform has again proven an effective means of raising funds, connecting charitable borrowers to mainstream investors and creating access to an attractive source of unsecured loan finance.”

The lead manager for the bond issue was Peel Hunt LLP.