Bridges Fund Management has secured the latest Lloyds Bank Commercial Real Estate green lending deal, agreeing a discount on £61m of loans on the condition it meets certain sustainability targets.
Lloyds Bank will provide a discount of up to 20bps on two loans it previously issued to Bridges in the fund manager’s acquisition of a mixed portfolio of 58 assets that became Flexspace. To qualify for the discount, every asset will have to obtain at least 30% of its energy from renewable sources by the end of 2017.
By the end of 2018, 45% of the portfolio’s energy will have to come from renewable sources. Bridges will also have to install low-energy LED lighting in eight of the properties.
The fund manager, which invests in deals it believes will have a positive social or environmental impact, originally agreed a £50m loan in February 2015 to cover the purchase of the first 50 properties that became its flexible workspace portfolio.
A second £10m loan was agreed in June last year for the final eight assets.
This was the first discount Lloyds issued in its £1bn Green Lending Initiative that was applied to an existing loan. So far, the scheme, launched last April, has issued about £70m in new loans to developers that agree to meet certain sustainable targets.
Simon Ringer, head of property funds at Bridges Fund Management, said: “Improving environmental performance is an integral part of our strategy, and we look to implement sustainable measures like these wherever possible on all our property investments.”
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