Impact Lending secures £75 million funding line for sustainable loans

By Bridging Loan Directory 9th August 2022

Impact Lending has secured a debt facility of up to £75m from Foresight Group LLP (“Foresight”), a leading listed infrastructure and private equity investment manager, to expand their offering of smart finance solutions for sustainable and traditional build schemes.

Impact Lending is a development loan provider for sustainable and traditional build projects, with products including sustainable – stretch senior, mezzanine and bridging finance.

The company has an acute sustainability focus, driven by its ESG agenda, a mission to address some of the greatest emergencies of our time: environment, housing, social cohesion and wellness.

Oliver Bates, Senior Private Debt Manager at Foresight, said:

“We are pleased to be partnering with Impact Lending, which sets out to solve two major issues at play in the current market.

Alongside the highly experienced team at Impact Lending, we look forward to playing a role in addressing the UK’s housing crisis, made more pressing than ever in a post-COVID environment, as well as supporting the Government’s Green Recovery initiative through Green Loans.”

Since its original launch in 2019, Impact Lending’s funding pipeline has included a mixture of commercial and residential schemes totalling £40.5million, of which 34% are made up of sustainable developments.

Robert Whitton, Founder and Group CEO, Impact Capital Group said:

“Green Loans are a new concept in the finance spectrum, especially within the SME space.

With our new funding line of up to £75 million, our intention is to push our sustainable loans range forward with a view to seeing our green products overtake our traditional loans range in the very near future.

This forms part of our long-term mission to help address the great emergencies of our time and we are pleased to see the market is really gaining traction in this direction.

Our collaboration with the team at Foresight is a testament to our ESG commitments and we are excited about the next steps.”

Impact Lending has recently developed a set of Green Criteria, evolving its sustainable loans range with clearly defined sustainability credentials. The criteria enables development projects to satisfy key aspects which constitute a sustainable development.

The debt facility (of up to) £75m was overseen by global consultancy firm AlixPartners, who advised Impact Lending on the fundraising process.

The new funds will facilitate the company in propelling its sustainable range forward, allowing Impact Lending to reach AUM of £100m in a bid to inspire the sector to adopt a greener route in housing and commercial delivery.