Alun Winter Robert Coles

Intelligent Loans acquired




1pm PLC has announced the acquisition of Intelligent Financing Limited as it looks to establish a new loans division.

The SME finance provider has acquired the entire share capital – worth up to £2m – of the brokerage, which trades as Intelligent Loans (iLoans) and engages in the packaging of secured bridging loans, second charge loans and commercial mortgages.

The iLoans business was founded by Alun Winter and Robert Coles (pictured above) and the brokerage is FCA regulated and recorded £1.5m of commission income during the last financial year.

The acquisition will allow 1pm to fund selected loans on its own balance sheet and extend its product range into adjacent, complementary sectors, which is part of the group’s growth strategy.

1pm’s acquisition consideration of up to a maximum of £2m comprises £1m in cash and £200,000 in 1pm PLC ordinary shares on completion at a price of 56.5p per ordinary share, while additional cash payments of up to £800,000 in total may be payable depending on the achievement of iLoans’ forecast profits in the period February 2017 to May 2019.

"We are delighted to continue to deliver on our strategic objectives of building scale, introducing adjacent, complementary products and developing our digital capability,” said Ian Smith, CEO of 1pm.

“Furthermore, maintaining risk mitigation by being able to replicate our successful 'funding and broking' operating model is vitally important.

“The acquisition of iLoans helps to achieve these objectives and we anticipate further growth based on this sound platform.”

Since 2014, 1pm has grown its own book of loan receivables to around £14m and now it will establish a loans division to enable it to combine interest revenue from this book with commission revenue from iLoans, thereby replicating the funder and broker business model.

1pm anticipates good cross-selling opportunities through the new loans division for general purpose property-backed loans to SMEs and also between the loans and asset finance divisions.

Earlier this month, 1pm revealed that a £7.5m secured loan note programme had been established with the flexibility for the group to issue loan notes with a range of maturities, repayment profiles and interest rates.

“Organising ourselves internally along divisional product lines and establishing relevant funding facilities for each product – such as the secured loan note programme primarily for loans – will further underpin our ability to grow,” added Ian.

“It also provides good cross-selling opportunities to an expanding customer base.

“We are committed to developing talent and I am particularly pleased to see the promotion of one of our ‘junior board’ to a general manager position within the group."

Rob Coles, director at Intelligent Loans, added: "The synergy with the Intelligent Loans business and culture is enormous and we are pleased to have reached completion with 1pm, and are equally excited to continue to develop the business and its opportunities as part of the larger group.”

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