Barclays Corporate provides £15m loan to care home specialist Signature Senior Lifestyle

Barclays Corporate has provided a £14.8m five-year loan to care home specialist, Signature Senior Lifestyle, as part of a wider £25m development project.

The loan will help facilitate the building and operation of a new 99-bed residential and nursing care home in Brentwood, Essex, which will also include a dedicated 24 unit specialist dementia care provision. The development is expected to take 18 months to complete, opening in April 2013.

The Brentwood community will be the fifth community operated by Signature Senior Lifestyle. Signature communities offer a range of apartment sizes, full service dining, activity programmes and bespoke person centred care “as and when required”. Signature currently employs over 225 people who care for over 200 elderly residents.

In addition to the Brentwood project, Signature has further plans to open an additional 10 homes over the next four to five years, in the South East of England, dramatically expanding both its service offering and number of employees.

George Fergusson, Relationship Director in Barclays Corporate’s Healthcare team, said: “With the UK’s population ageing at its fastest rate yet, supporting the operation and expansion of quality care has never been more important. Barclays Corporate is committed to the industry and will continue to support strong operators”.

Aidan Roche, Chief Financial Officer at Signature Senior Lifestyle, said: “Barclays has been a strong and supportive funder of Signature as we expand our business to meet the growing need for quality care provision in the UK. We are delighted to have completed the Brentwood funding and look forward to successfully completing the project and welcoming residents to their new home at Signature”.

About Barclays Corporate

With a clear focus on quality relationships, Barclays Corporate provides integrated banking solutions to businesses with an annual turnover of more than £5 million in the UK and large local companies, financial institutions and multinationals in non-UK markets. We facilitate the success and growth of our clients by providing lending, risk management, cash and liquidity management, trade finance and asset and sales financing. Additionally, our clients benefit from the breadth of the Barclays Group, through access to the investment banking services of Barclays Capital including debt and equity capital markets, the private wealth management expertise of Barclays Wealth, and the card and payment services of Barclaycard. Barclays Corporate employs over 10,000 people globally. For more information please visit www.barclayscorporate.com.

About Barclays

Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in retail banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth management with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 145,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide. For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com.