The FP show saw the launch of London Bridge Plc (a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta Capital Plc). Whilst the family business has been in the lending industry for 40 years, this is the first time they have opened the doors to intermediaries and individuals looking to finance residential investment loans only (non-regulated loans), boasting LTVs up to 80 per cent for Prime, Central London properties and up to 75 per cent for the rest of the UK. The new lender has offices in Mayfair, London and the Cotswolds, Midlands.

Whilst manning the Brightstar stand, I also had the pleasure of meeting (and making a coffee for) Roni Chotoveli, CEO of Fairmont Capital – another relatively new entrant in to the bridging sector, having launched in January of this year. Roni advised that Fairmont offer non-regulated 1st charge loans up to 70 per cent LTV and 2nd charge bridging loans up to 65 per cent LTV, with a minimum loan of £30,000 and a maximum of £10 million, with terms from two months up to 18 months max.

I also enjoyed a game of air hockey and glass of champagne (or two) on the MT-Finance stand and it was great to see Joshua, Tomer, Lenka and Sherice, with such a great presence at this year’s show, a sure sign that they are going from strength to strength and grow in size and popularity.

Likewise, it was great to catch up with friends and representatives from Alpha Bridging, Alternative Bridging Corporation, Aldermore, Blemain Group, Bridgebank Capital, Capital Bridging, Dragonfly, Ezbob, Fairmont Capital, Goldcrest Finance, Hope Capital, Interbay, Just Capital, Kent Reliance, LendInvest, Lancashire Mortgage Corporation, Masthaven, Montello, Mayfair Bridging, Omni Capital, Ortus Secured Finance, Precise Mortgages, Regentsmead, Shawbrook Bank, Ultimate Capital, United Trust Bank and West One Loans to name but a few! That’s almost one bridging lender per letter of the alphabet, which is truly symbolic of the range of lenders and products occupying the specialist and short-term sector space. Apologies to anyone that I missed out, and if anyone else is thinking of launching a new bridging lender, may I suggest a company name beginning with the letters N, Q or Z, which would appear to be largely under-utilised.

Congratulations to the event organizers for putting on the best FP show yet, with over 1600 people attending the show. Finally, congratulations to my Brightstar Blog Partner in Crime and fellow company director and our head of commercial lending team, Robert Collins, for being formally accepted as a Director of the NACFB. Well done Rob!