Centrus advises Abri Group and Silva Homes on merger

Centrus’ Role

The partnership results in Abri Group becoming a 50,000 home organisation – Centrus acted as sole corporate finance advisor to both entities. This role involved: 

• Merger treasury strategy formulation and execution, including business plan appraisal, capacity analysis, legal structure appraisal, consent cost analysis, liquidity and funding analysis, and credit rating strategy, feeding into the outline and full business cases. 
• Engaging 10 lenders including banks, bond aggregators and UK investors.
• Providing insight and guidance throughout the lender consent process.  
• Assurance reporting (including to Joint Steering Group), project management and support to legal teams / other professional advisors.

Landscape and Outcomes

• Centrus delivered the merger on time, whilst successfully gaining consents across a complex lender engagement landscape.
• Focused negotiations minimised NPV cost of facility restructuring / refinancing; loss of value limited to 3 lenders whilst value gained with 2 lenders – net loss of value in legacy facilities equated to less than 5% of value at risk, substantially outperforming estimates.
• Hedging restructuring across 3 lenders; realisation of in-the-money positions leading to final aggregate net income position whilst reducing ongoing interest costs. 
• Target financial covenants and definition harmonisation achieved with moderate exceptions, resulting in substantial increase in debt capacity and financial resilience.
• Greater corporate freedoms around financial support and merger consents negotiated, including forward consent for Silva Homes to fully combine with Abri Group in future.

“The merger provides Abri with a strong platform to build new homes and invest in existing ones, creating a sustainable future for the thriving and inclusive communities we support. 

Centrus provided expert advice and support during the analysis, negotiation and completion stages of our engagement with a diverse group of lenders. The impressive team at Centrus, led by Lawrence Gill and Paul Stevens, delivered on key targets within challenging timelines. 

The Centrus team provided real commercial insight and helped us make key decisions on structure and terms, supporting through some relatively complex covenant negotiations and financial close pricing exercises. They were proactive and very responsive, and great to work with on this deal. We look forward to working with Centrus in the future.”

Caroline Moore, Chief Financial Officer – Abri Group

For more information, please contact Lawrence Gill, Director – Centrus

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