Fortwell expands senior team and refreshes products

Fortwell expands senior team and refreshes products




Fortwell Capital has appointed two senior recruits to its development finance team amid a number of changes to its lending criteria.

Arthur Jennings adopts the newly created head of development finance role, having previously served as a relationship manager at Qatar National Bank.

Reporting to Arthur will be senior analyst Nikos Yerolemou, who joins Fortwell from Lloyds Banking Group’s commercial real estate division.

Arthur said: “I'm passionate about the sector, but bank lending has become very tightly regulated and vanilla in nature.

“Fortwell's offering attracted me because of its skilled individuals and the support it receives from its parent business, CPC Group.

“My task now is to build on this to help the business grow exponentially during the next important phase of its evolution."

In his new role, Arthur will be responsible for managing and monitoring both Fortwell’s development finance portfolio and the underwriting of all new transactions.

Meanwhile, Cambridge University graduate Nikos will be responsible for providing Fortwell with transactional modelling and supporting Arthur in all stages of the funding process.

Nikos added: "The move to Fortwell appealed because I wanted a role that combines greater personal and professional responsibility with an opportunity to take ownership of complex real estate funding transactions from start to finish.

“Fortwell offers me this, and in what promises to be an exciting new era for the development finance sector, and for entrepreneurial lenders in particular, I'm relishing the part I've been given to play."

Arthur will be making further announcements to the team over the coming months.

The announcement follows news that Fortwell was altering its lending criteria to allow bridging finance in amounts from £3m upwards.

Some of the firm’s interest rates were also reduced and now start for qualifying transactions at 0.65% per month.

Minimum property valuations were also increased, while for development finance the maximum loan-to-gross development value has risen from 70% to 75%.

Colin Sanders, CEO of Fortwell, said: "We believe the next few years will reveal superb opportunities for securely funded, nimble lenders able to strike the right balance between risk and reward.”

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