Glenhawk agrees £200m senior funding line with NatWest Markets
Glenhawk, one of the UK’s fastest growing specialist lenders, has agreed a £200m senior funding line with NatWest Markets (“NatWest”), which will support its ambitions to lend £1bn annually by 2024. The new facility sits alongside Glenhawk’s existing funding line with J.P. Morgan and capitalises upon NatWest’s experience in the high growth UK bridging sector, which saw applications and completions rebound significantly in the second quarter of 2022 and bridging loan books reach a record £6.1bn.
Having doubled the live loan book size over the past 12 months, the funding line will provide Glenhawk with the flexibility to significantly increase its lending volumes. It will support both the expansion of its unregulated product range, which will have an increased focus on refurbishment and light development projects, larger loan sizes, commercial real estate, as well as an enhanced regulated offering.
Glenhawk has seen strong demand for its short-term lending products in 2022, in particular in the residential space, supported by a favourable market backdrop: an acute shortage of stock, a strong labour market and an ongoing focus on home ownership. Capitalising on the ongoing market retrenchment by both more traditional and newer sources of financing, it achieved three consecutive months of record lending in May, June and July, and following its launch in May, experienced a 300% increase in enquiries for its regulated product.
The UK bridging sector has enjoyed a strong second quarter: bridging loan transactions were 10.4% higher than in Q2 2021, and up 17.4% on the previous quarter, whilst loan books reached a record £6.1bn, up 22% on Q2 2021.
Jennifer Wallaert, managing director at NatWest Markets, commented: “NatWest Markets is delighted to work with Glenhawk’s team and support the company in its next phase of growth. This transaction demonstrates NatWest Markets’ expertise and capabilities in the UK specialist lending space and associated hedging. Supporting UK businesses and ultimately providing tailored innovative funding solution to an underserved part of the market is at the very heart of NatWest Markets purpose led strategy.”
Daron Kularatnam, treasurer & ESG director, Glenhawk, added: “The market dislocation we are witnessing as a result of the current macroeconomic volatility provides an attractive window for highly disciplined and well capitalised lenders. Furthermore, the fundamentals underpinning homeowner, commercial and mixed-use asset real estate remain particularly compelling.
“The support of NatWest is a major endorsement of not only what Glenhawk has achieved to date, but also our future strategy, and provides stable funding to support our ambitious lending targets. Borrowers looking for sophisticated lending solutions that marry speed and flexibility with certainty of funding remain underserved, and NatWest’s support will enable us to accelerate the roll out of new products that meet growing investor demand. We are hugely excited to embark on this new growth phase and thrilled to be welcoming the NatWest team in as additional funding partners.”
Glenhawk was advised on legals by Ashurst and NatWest Markets was advised by Allen & Overy.
