Yorkshire-headquartered ilke Homes has raised a record-breaking £100 million from new and existing shareholders following successive years of triple-digit growth.
The round is being led by funds managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC (Fortress), a global investment manager with approximately $46 billion of assets under management.
Existing investors TDR Capital and Sun Capital also subscribed to ilke Homes’ latest fundraising round, which was arranged by investment bank Citigroup and acts as a rare example of a company increasing its valuation as global stocks remain under pressure from the continued macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty.
The new funding – the largest-ever raised by a UK modular housebuilder – will be transformational for ilke Homes. It will help the company to significantly scale-up its operations and open a new manufacturing facility that, once operational, will increase the company’s output capacity to 4,000 homes a year, creating over 1,000 new jobs in the UK.
The investment will also allow the company to invest heavily in automating more of its manufacturing processes to further drive productivity. This will in turn enable ilke to secure more sites and expand its ‘package deal’ strategy, which offers full development service of land, infrastructure and homes in a rapidly growing market.
The company, which has seen revenue grow by over 150 percent year-on-year, is already working with some of the UK’s biggest developers and investors, including global asset manager Man Group, FTSE 250-listed housebuilder Vistry Group, and housing association Places for People. Despite being founded just five years ago, ilke Homes is now delivering over 1,000 homes a year and has secured a pipeline of over 4,000 homes, putting it on par with some of the UK’s biggest housebuilders.
Rahul Ahuja, co-head of European Credit at Fortress Investment Group, said: “We are excited about our investment in ilke Homes. We see ilke Homes as the UK market leader in the manufacturing of modular housing and believe the company is uniquely positioned to increase the availability of high quality affordable housing in the UK while accelerating the transition to net zero.”
Jonathan Mitchell, partner at TDR Capital, an existing investor in ilke Homes, said: “The success of ilke Homes’ capital raise in the context of the difficult current funding environment is testament to its innovative business model and dedicated management team. Having achieved triple digit growth across the group for successive years, ilke Homes is strongly positioned and capitalised to deliver in a market with strong long term fundamentals.”
Giles Carter, CEO at ilke Homes, said: “Our latest fundraise demonstrates that the private sector is increasingly recognising the investment case for change. With the race to net-zero well and truly underway, the next few years will be a decisive time in the history of housebuilding, so it’s important that true market disruptors are empowered to play a leading role.
“Having pioneered a zero-carbon, zero energy bills solution in partnership with Octopus Energy and Gresham House, the new monies will allow us to roll out our proven concept across the country and shield consumers from the cost-of-living crisis. By investing to increase our manufacturing capacity, we will also create hundreds of skilled, green jobs.”
