Care home operator seals £33m deal

A Northampton care home operator says it is targeting further expansion following agreement on a new £33m funding package with Yorkshire Bank.

Avery Homes Group (AHG) is one of the country’s largest operators of elderly care facilities, with more than 3000 beds across a network of 43 homes in England.

The new funding, facilitated by Jamie Stuart and Graham Harper from Yorkshire Bank’s Specialist and Acquisition Finance team, is a mixture of revolving credit facilities and development finance. It will support the development of a new home at Kingstanding in the West Midlands and a refinancing of four of the Group’s existing facilities at Ashurst Mews, Moulton and Glenmoor House, Corby in Northamptonshire and at the Abbey Court and Alma Court homes in Staffordshire.

Construction work on the new Kingstanding home will begin in August 2016 and is scheduled to take around 18 months to complete. The development will include private dining facilities, air conditioning, a well-being centre and a small cinema.

Founded in 2005, AHG employs approximately 3500 staff. The majority of the Group’s properties are owned by Welltower, the US healthcare real estate investment trust.

John Strowbridge, founder and CEO of AHG said: “We have successfully grown the Group over a number of years both by acquisition and by regularly investing in our properties to maintain the high quality of the facilities we are able to offer our residents.

“We believe there is considerable potential for further growth and, for that reason, we felt the time was right to seek a new funding partner, who alongside our main stakeholder, Welltower, could support the next stage of the expansion strategy for the business.

“Yorkshire Bank provided the loan to support the purchase of our first care home 25 years ago so with this new funding things really have come full circle.

“The sector knowledge demonstrated by Yorkshire Bank’s Healthcare specialists and the proactive and flexible approach which the team as a whole have taken has been extremely welcome.”