Nick Baker

Allica enters bridging market after acquiring Tuscan




Allica Bank has entered the bridging market after acquiring bridging lender Tuscan Capital.

The bank, which has lent over £2bn to established businesses since its launch in March 2020, plans to become a leading player in the bridging finance market.

The team at Tuscan — which was founded in 2018 by CEO Colin Sanders, former CEO of Fortwell Capital, and Ed Parsons — will eventually fully integrate into the Allica team.

Tuscan will gain access to the bank’s funding base and distribution network, while Allica aims to use the lender’s bridging expertise and broker network.

The acquisition is set to expand Allica’s commercial finance product offering to include bridging and refurbishment finance, with a focus on semi-commercial and full commercial bridging, alongside Tuscan’s existing residential bridging offering.

Allica has also hired Justin Trowse, the former director of structured property finance at LendInvest, as its head of bridging.

Justin will lead the bank’s bridging distribution strategy.

Commenting on the acquisition, Colin said: “Ed and I set up Tuscan with a vision to transform what we saw as a broken bridging market, with a specific focus on bringing back speed and decisiveness to the decision-making process.

“Allica’s no-nonsense approach to banking shows they share this vision with us.

“This is a really positive development for the Tuscan team, our intermediary partners, and the wider SME community, and we look forward to the proposition enhancements that will undoubtedly follow today's news.”

Nick Baker, CCO at Allica (pictured above), added: “We are thrilled to welcome Tuscan into the Allica family.

“Tuscan’s commitment to service, and in particular their focus on speed and transparency for their broker partners and customers, meant the synergies with Allica’s values were clear.

“Commercial bridging is an important but underserved part of the lending market.

“That’s why we believe bringing together Tuscan’s expertise and existing relationships with Allica’s resources and network is a winning combination for the market.

“We look forward to sharing more about how we’ll be developing our bridging proposition in the coming weeks.”

Earlier this year, Allica was named as the fastest-growing company in the UK in The Sunday Times 100.

In 2023, the bank achieved its first full year of profitability.

Over the next five years, Allica aims to gain 10% market share to “help change the SME market for the better”.

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