Christian Candy’s CPC Group is thought to be the primary funder of the new venture, called Omni Capital, putting in £50 million, whilst other private equity revenues and the Mortgage Centre IFA will also contribute to funding.

Mortgage Centre IFA, whose managing director is Paul Munford, will manage the firm and use its existing underwriters and brokers to facilitate deals. 

Mr Munford said the firm was experienced in lending and broking and felt the time was right to launch a new lender.

“We have substantial resources behind this new operation, both in terms of funding and also the resources of our sales and administration teams and the full resource of CPC Group,” he said.

As with most bridging lenders, the company plans to be flexible in its lending approach and won’t subject borrowers to credit scoring. Borrowers can apply for loans from £50,000 to £5 million with loan periods of three to twelve months.

In a statement released by CPC Group, Christian Candy spoke of what he believed was a ‘huge gap in the market for quality funding’ as traditional methods of funding had dried up.

“Omni Capital will provide an attractive offering for individuals and small-scale developers who are seeking to keep control of their assets and keep their existing bankers at bay,” said Mr Candy.

For the time being Omni say they will only lend in prime central London areas, but may well compliment their lending by working in conjunction with other short term providers nationwide.

FahimAntoniades, group director at Mortgage Centre IFA, told Bridging and Commercial that he didn’t think there were many companies who dealt at a ‘bespoke level’ in the prime central London region and that Omni would continue the brokerage’s tradition of dealing with a centralised high net-worth market.

“But if the deal was right that isn’t to say we wouldn’t go outside of the central London market,” he added.

Asked whether he thought the market was in danger of becoming saturated with bridging lenders, Mr Antoniades said: “I think you can argue there are still a lot more High Street lenders out there, so I don’t think the short term sector is saturated at the moment, no.”

Mr Antoniades declined to comment on who he believed his main competitors would be but instead that he hoped the small, ‘tight knit’ community that bridging enjoys would come together, rather than compete on deals.