Gresham House secures new £7m banking facility

Specialist asset manager Gresham House secured funding for its ongoing ‘strategic development’ on Tuesday, announcing a new £7m banking facility with Kleinwort Benson Bank.

The AIM-traded firm said the borrowing was secured against its property assets and the deferred proceeds of the sale of its Newton-le-Willows site to Persimmon Homes, announced in September last year.

Gresham House said the facility would be repayable in three tranches, matching the deferred proceeds from Persimmon. £2.09m will be repayable on 22 March 2017, another £2.09m a year later, and the balance another year after that.

The interest rate was not disclosed, but Gresham House’s board said it was in line with their expectations.

Part of the funding will be used to repay the existing Co-operative Bank facility of £2.85m, and pay down toe £0.67m short-term loan notes issued when the company acquired Aitchesse.

The balance of the proceeds will be used for general working capital and investment, which the board said was in line with supporting its growth strategy.

“"This is a further element in the development of our long term plan, and we are pleased we have secured this new facility with Kleinwort Benson,” said Gresham House CEO Anthony Dalwood.

“It has enabled us to utilise the legacy property assets of the group to support our strategy of building Gresham House into a specialist asset manager of differentiated and illiquid alternative investment strategies that generate superior long term investment returns."