Bruntwood SciTech has secured an additional £100m funding package from Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander UK – taking their total facilities to £580m.
Bruntwood SciTech’s financial package has been extended to three-years and consists of a £530m investment facility – of which £450m is a term loan and £80m is a revolving credit facility – and a £50m development facility.
Already the country’s leading developer of city-wide innovation ecosystems, and now the UK’s largest property platform dedicated to the growth of the science, tech and innovation sectors, Bruntwood SciTech aims to create a £5bn UK platform of specialist workspace by 2033.
The green funding terms of the refinance aligns with Bruntwood SciTech’s ESG commitments, specifically: improving the EPC ratings of buildings; a year-on-year reduction in carbon intensity; a reduction in embodied carbon across new build developments, and an increase in renewable energy procurement.
The funding will enable the commercial real estate joint venture between Bruntwood, L&G and Greater Manchester Pension Fund to continue with its expansion plans to support the continued demand from innovation-led businesses across the UK with world-class infrastructure and specialist support. Funding will specifically focus on office and lab space across the six cities Bruntwood SciTech operates in – Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, London and Cambridge – where they have 11 campuses and 31 city centre innovation hubs supporting more than 1,100 startups, scaleups and global businesses.
Specific to its growth plans, this most recent funding will support the completion of development works at No.3 Circle Square within Manchester’s Oxford Road Corridor knowledge quarter, further refurbishments and improvements at Alderley Park; the full scale redevelopment of the landmark Pall Mall building on King Street Manchester city centre – which will provide 90,000sqft of market leading office, amenity and wellness space; and continued investment into Sister -Bruntwood SciTech’s joint venture with The University of Manchester to deliver a £1.7bn new innovation district in the city.
Bruntwood SciTech also has ambitious decarbonisation plans, with all new developments now net zero (being based on the UKBGC Net Zero Carbon Buildings Framework) in both construction and operation in all shared spaces as part of their target to be fully net zero by 2050. They also now provide 100% renewable energy to all shared spaces across their whole portfolio, supported through their investment in a wind farm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Lloyds acted as Sustainability Coordinator. HSBC Bank plc acted as the Facility Agent.
Hill Dickinson acted on behalf of the Lenders and Addleshaw Goddard for Bruntwood SciTech, with CBRE and JLL providing valuations.
Kevin Crotty, Chief Financial Officer for Bruntwood SciTech, said: “18 months on from announcing that Greater Manchester Pension Fund would be joining the joint venture, and that we’d secured an additional £500m of investment into the business to support growth of the science, tech and innovation sectors, we remain committed to delivering the ambitious development projects needed to help regional innovation clusters grow. The continued support of our financial partners in helping us to drive forward this work is hugely appreciated and is a show of confidence in our ability to meet this ambition.
“This funding facility will also enable us to continue putting sustainability at the heart of all our new and ongoing developments. As well as working hard to reduce our own carbon footprint, we’re also helping to make it easier for our customers to do the same. With the new funding, we will be able to move quickly and generate the momentum needed to deliver a more sustainable built environment for businesses to innovate, collaborate and grow within.”
