Bruntwood SciTech, which owns and operates The Plaza and Cotton Exchange office complexes in Liverpool, secures new £100m finance facility. Tony McDonough reports
Bruntwood SciTech has secured a £100m credit facility from Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander UK, taking its total bank facilities to £580.
This latest financial package has been extended to three-years and comprises a £530m investment facility – of which £450m is a term loan and £80m is a revolving credit facility – and a £50m development facility.
Funding will focus on office and lab space across the six cities Bruntwood SciTech operates in – Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, London and Cambridge.
In total the firm has 11 campuses and 31 city centre innovation hubs supporting more than 1,100 startups, scaleups and global businesses.
Its key assets in Liverpool include The Plaza and Cotton Exchange office complexes in the commercial district. It is also a partner in Sciontec along with the city council and the universities. Sciontec operates Liverpool Science Park and space at The Spine building.
Bruntwood SciTech aims to create a £5bn UK platform of specialist workspace by 2033. The green funding terms of the refinance aligns with its commitment to a year-on-year reduction in carbon intensity; a reduction in embodied carbon across new build developments, and an increase in renewable energy procurement.
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: “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.
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“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.”
