In April 2010, Porthaven Care homes opened its first home in Cheshire – today, this care provider owns and operates 22 homes across the UK, with more on the way. All their homes offer residential, nursing, dementia and short stay care provided by a team of dedicated and highly-qualified staff, with the aim that each care home is a place where Porthaven residents can feel safe, secure, valued and cared for. 

As a new to bank customer, Porthaven approached us to consider funding options to refinance three newly-developed homes in Harpenden, Cambridge and Burford (Cotswolds) with a new banking partner. In doing so, they wanted to diversify their funding across the group’s asset base, and increase their liquidity to support their ongoing growth strategy.

Discussing options to maximise debt capacity over several months, and based on their financing requirements going forward, the NatWest deal team worked through multiple iterations of structures and agreed to provide a bilateral £37.9m term loan, including an uncommitted £15m accordion facility to offer flexibility and accessible liquidity for a planned, fourth new care home. 

Adam Valentine, Porthaven’s Chief Financial Officer, commented: “We are very pleased with the support and the expertise NatWest has provided to help us fund the next stage of our growth journey, and we thank the NatWest team for their outstanding customer service throughout the transaction. This deal will help us build and operate more, high-quality care homes, much needed in the UK, and we are excited about the start of a strong relationship with NatWest as a trusted financing partner.”

Chris Rees, UK Structured Finance Director, NatWest, said: “We’re delighted to support Porthaven growing their care home portfolio across the UK and funding three new care homes with the refinancing. This transaction is another example of multiple specialist teams within our bank working closely together as One Bank to ensure the best outcome.”

Ben Packham, Coverage Relationship Director at NatWest, said: “We’re excited to embark on our relationship journey with the Porthaven Group. This is a fantastic long-term prospect, and we are delighted to include them among the NatWest Healthcare clients, where we offer strong sector expertise on a national level.”