Catalyst Housing Limited Annual Report 2021

Catalyst Housing Limited Annual Report

28 September 2021

Catalyst Housing Limited today announces the publication of its financial statements for 2020/2021, alongside our inaugural ESG Report. These can be accessed via the following links:

https://www.chg.org.uk/about-us/investor-information/financial-performance/

https://www.chg.org.uk/about-us/efficiency-and-transparency/esg-and-sustainability-reporting/

Highlights

Financial performance

In a uniquely challenging year, Catalyst's financial performance has remained strong with growth in both turnover (£298.2 million) and operating surplus (£67.4 million).

Our EBITDA MRI interest cover at 124% has improved, alongside a social housing operating margin at 30% and gearing at 41%, backed by £3 billion of assets (NBV).

During the year, we built upon our strong liquidity position, raising £150 million through a tap issue of our existing 2047 bond and signing a second sustainability-linked loan.

This has underpinned our ability to support principal cash outflows of £123 million in new development and existing assets, making sure our customers can enjoy safe and sustainable homes. This includes fire safety measures for our properties. We prioritise the safety of our customers and have been successful in securing £34 million in government grant to date to support the completion of these works.

We delivered 305 new homes in the year ended March 2021, winning a total of four design awards and achieving an impressive 93% customer satisfaction score for new homes. Staying true to our purpose, 87% of the new homes delivered were social tenures.

Sustainability

Sustainability continued to be at the heart of what we do and this year we focussed on making sure that we both continued to rise to new challenges and also considered how we demonstrate to our partners what this means at Catalyst.

In November 2020, Catalyst became the first company in Europe to receive the highest accreditation mark across all three categories in the 'Certified Sustainable Housing Label' from the Ritterwald consultancy - a testament to our ongoing commitment to sustainability in all its forms and, while Covid has brought public health issues to the fore, bringing attention to the importance of proper housing and community support, the ongoing climate emergency also remains a priority.

That's why our recently published sustainable finance framework (July 2021), supported by a second party opinion (SPO) from imug rating, sets out our commitment to use new funding to deliver more affordable housing, improve the energy efficiency of our homes, and continue to invest in improving the lives of customers and their communities.

We're also proud to be launching our first ever report under the sector's sustainability reporting standard. This demonstrates how sustainability runs through all our corporate objectives and contributes to the successful delivery of our purpose, vision, and values.

We also achieved recognition for our new development and regeneration schemes (such as the Evening Standard's New Homes Award for our Southall Village development which won the Best Regeneration Initiative), and we retained our SHIFT (Sustainable Homes Index for Tomorrow) Gold accreditation, this being the first time the accreditation covered all Catalyst's newly merged assets and activities. We were recognised in the Hertfordshire Care Awards for our outstanding achievements during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Merger

On 1 April 2021 Rosebery and Catalyst merged, this seeing the Group grow from 34,000 to 37,000 homes, with complementary geography and ethos. Both organisations have a great heritage and an aligned social purpose. The combined organisation will use its assets and talent to provide a greater customer experience, well designed homes that people need and want, and create great places to live.

On 30 July 2021 Catalyst announced plans to merge with Peabody, becoming a subsidiary in 2022, subject to all relevant approvals and consents being achieved, before joining together as an equal partner in 2023.

Ian McDermott, Chief Executive said,

"Social purpose was sewn into the fabric of our organisation from the very beginning. Today, we call this commitment Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and from those now distant beginnings, our ESG credentials have continued to evolve and to flow through every part of our business.

"This year we've continued to crystallise our five key corporate objectives which manifest our purpose, vision and values: to get closer to customers and deliver great services, to build more quality homes, to be safe and sustainable, to invest in our people and define our culture, and to revolutionise our data and technology.

"It has been the most extraordinary year, prompting the world to focus on what really matters. Our sustainability credentials have never been more important and our commitment to continue strengthening and evolving our ESG ethos can only be delivered from a stable financial platform. Catalyst has demonstrated significant financial resilience against an unprecedented backdrop continuing to deliver our purpose: homes people love."

A copy of the financial statements has been filed with the National Storage Mechanism via the FCA Electronic Submission System.

ENDS

This update may contain certain forward-looking statements reflecting, among other things, our current views on markets, activities and prospects. Actual outcomes may differ materially. Such statements are a correct reflection of our views only on the publication date and no representation or warranty is given in relation to them, including as to their completeness or accuracy or the basis on which they were prepared.

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