Your Housing Group this week has successfully completed its group restructure. The five core Registered Providers have been combined into one entity, renamed Your Housing Limited (YHL), which will own and manage more than 28,000 homes across the North West.
As part of this process, circa £457,000,000 of the group’s finances and underlying security arrangements have been restructured.
This was a complex transaction with a large number of moving parts and stakeholders, resulting in a major simplification of the group structure. The group now comprises a non-asset owning parent company, with YHL as the main asset-owning subsidiary and Frontis as a for-profit RP holding a range of social housing and other assets.
One former stock transfer association within the group, previously with a non-coterminous board (Moorlands HA), has been transferred into YHL while two other former stock transfer associations (Leasowe and Derwent & Solway HA) have now left the group.
Centrus acted as financial advisor to Your Housing Group and Devonshires provided legal advice.
Jeremy Earnshaw, Chief Financial Officer, commented that:
“This transaction increases financial capacity and reduces operational risk. It allows us to focus on running and developing the business. Your Housing Group now has a clear and robust platform to take forward our strategic aims and we are excited for the future. We have worked with Centrus and Devonshires throughout at a strategic and transactional level and their support has been much appreciated.”
John Tattersall, Assistant Director at Centrus, commented that:
“Your Housing Group have dramatically improved their treasury flexibility, raised additional liquidity, obtained more freedom to deliver new homes on a variety of tenures, and retained a significant amount of economic value in historic financing relationships. We are pleased to have supported YHG in securing this excellent outcome.”
Gary Grigor, Partner at Devonshires, commented that:
“The nature and complexity of the transaction called on a multitude of legal services ranging from banking and corporate advice to pensions and governance support. We employed a dedicated team of sector-renowned lawyers to help Your Housing Group navigate these complex issues to ensure that YHL is better aligned to achieve its business aspirations.”
