Sancus BMS Group has acquired 23,209 shares in the lender, formerly known as Platform Black, representing 10% of the issued ordinary share capital of Sancus Finance, taking its holding to 98.23%.

The shares were purchased from private investors (the Minority Investor Group) for £350,000 in cash.

Sancus BMS also purchased 200,000 preference shares from the Minority Investor Group at par for a total consideration of £203,490 in cash, including the accrued interest.

The Minority Investor Group originally acquired these shares on 29th July 2016.

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The acquisition comes after Sancus Finance recorded a post-tax loss of £2m in the 18 months ended 31st December 2016.
 
The lender also recorded turnover of £900,000 and recently launched a new funding platform.

As part of the transaction, all further rights held by the Minority Investor Group have been cancelled, which includes the option to acquire for cash a further 20% of Sancus Finance’s ordinary share capital from Sancus BMS at a £5m valuation and the right to appoint three non-executive directors to the board of Sancus Finance.

The lender is increasingly being run on a combined basis with Funding Knight, which is a 100% owned subsidiary of GLI.

Caroline Langron (pictured above) was recently appointed the new managing director of Funding Knight, while continuing her role as managing director of Sancus Finance.

“Increased ownership of Sancus Finance provides greater flexibility to deliver the synergies associated with running the two businesses alongside each other,” said GLI.

“By combining offices and some elements of infrastructure, significant cost reductions have been achieved, including through lower staff numbers.
 
“A new combined sales team has been recruited to offer an enhanced and wider product range in the second half of 2017 offering a one-stop solution to the SME, property and education sector offering increased revenue potential.”