New bond offers 6% yield Workspace Group, the provider of small business space in and around London, is to raise up to £75m via an issue of bonds to retail investors on the London Stock Exchange's Order Book for Retail Bonds (Orb) platform. The bonds will pay a coupon of 6 per cent each year in two instalments until they mature in 2019. Workspace owns and manages over 100 London properties which are home to some 4,000 businesses across a broad range of sectors. Workspace doesn't have a rating from credit agencies and the bond issue is unsecured, but the company says its covenant arrangements offer a high level of protection to individual investors. It has pledged to keep its interest cover ratio at 1.5 times or above and its loan-to-value ratio at 75 per cent or below. Advisers say this makes it more attractive than other recent issues from property companies such as CLS and Primary Health Properties. Both those featured lower coupons and less covenant protection - and now trade at discounts to their issue prices. The offer period for the Workspace issue which, courtesy of its seven-year maturity can be held with an individual savings account, opens on September 19 and is expected to close on October 2 - though other recent issues have closed early following robust demand. Barclays, Redmayne Bentley, Brewin Dolphin, Killik and SelfTrade are the retail distributors.