Sirius Finance has completed an £8m revolving credit facility to fund the refinancing of a portfolio of commercial and mixed-use assets.

The loan, secured on a portfolio of 24 shops, restaurants, offices, holiday lets and a dry cleaners, was used to release equity to fund further expansion of the client’s portfolio.

Sirius, which also said the facility would help provide liquidity for future opportunities, said that one of the main complexities within the deal was that all the properties were held within a family trust spanning 35 years.

Senior associate at Sirius, Kelly Rule, worked with the ahead of the expiration of the existing funding arrangement to find a lender that was comfortable with the structure of the portfolio and ensure the new loan was in place on a five-year fixed rate at 5.47%.

“The clients were keen to expand their portfolio and were being offered new properties regularly, but were being out bid by cash buyers so they needed a solution,” Rule said.

“I recommended a revolving credit facility - refinance the existing debt of £3.5m in the first instance and then providing a pre-agreed facility that could be on standby to finance new opportunities, with funds available to draw down in 48 hours. The maximum credit facility on offer was £6.75m but the clients opted for a conservative £4.5m to avoid over stretching themselves.

“The unique condition with this product is that no interest is charged on the pre agreed facility and there are no non-utilisation fees. The clients can now act as cash buyers with the ease of the simple drawdown as and when they require it.”

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