North East investment fund achieves record £14m loan level supporting regional property developments

TOC Property Backed Lending Trust PLC (PBLT) managed by Newcastle based wealth management and property lending specialist, Tier One Capital Ltd, has achieved record levels of new loan facilities in support of property developments in the North East and Scotland.

Announcing its full trading update for the financial year ending November 30 2021, the London Stock Exchange listed company has reported annual new loan facilities of £13.9m, the highest since it was founded in 2017.

These new loans have been deployed across five developments in the residential and commercial property sectors. As of November 2021, 17 projects are benefiting from PBLT loans, split between 12 residential projects and five projects with a commercial focus.

In its latest financial year, PBLT achieved profits of £929k, an increase from £856k in the previous 12 months, despite annual net income slipping slightly to £1.697m in 2021 from £1.894m in 2020.

The company generated an earnings per share of 3.45p, an increase from the previous year figure of 3.18p and returned a dividend of 4p per share, an increase from 3p per share in 2020. It also saw its Net Asset value total return increase from 3.9 percent in 2020 to 4.8 percent in 2021.

Ian McElroy, Chief Executive of Tier One, the investment adviser to PBLT said: “The quality of our loan portfolio reflects the growing standing of PBLT as a credible alternative lending resource for developers and the strong activity in the property market.

“We have used this year to protect shareholder value and maintain our strategy of managing a balanced portfolio across residential and commercial schemes. We have also continued our focus on liquidity within the fund as there remains elements of volatility in the market from the pandemic, Brexit and the conflict in Ukraine.

“As a result, we have created fund headroom of £11m at the end of the year, which is contributing to our ongoing ambitions to support developments, predominantly in the North East, but also in Scotland, with a strong pipeline of potential schemes at varied stages of progress.”

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