Commercial lender rolls out £90m fund

Commercial lender rolls out £90m fund




Finance Ireland Commercial Mortgages has announced that it will be lending approximately £90m to commercial property owners to finance exits from 'vulture funds'.

Vulture Funds are known as international venture funds who buy assets at low prices and then sell a few years later when the market recovers.  

Finance Ireland will provide property owners with  the funds as they close negotiations with the vulture fund as they look to refinance.

Finance Ireland, which was set up by former Permanent TSB CEO Billy Kane, expects to fully deploy the new fund over the next 12 months.

It will be used to finance commercial investment in the £900,000 to £5.5m loan market and cover office, retail, industrial and multifamily buy-to-let properties.

“To date we have completed over 20 deals in the €1-6m category, which is our target loan space,” said Ken Murnaghan, managing director of Finance Ireland Commercial Mortgages. 

“We are Irish owned and managed and because we were the first Irish specialist lender to raise term debt on international markets, we have full authority to make our own lending decisions.

“We know the market intimately and we don’t have to refer back to a head office to approve or second guess what we want to do.”

Ken pointed out that after years of operating in survival mode, businesses were now starting to realise that alternative finance solutions existed and most customers were telling them that traditional banks were becoming more selective regarding the £900,000 to £5.5m loan space.

“We can move faster because we are focused on this space, because we understand the loan settlement business and because we adopt a pragmatic approach.”

 “We are comfortable refinancing deals from loan funds, it’s a specialised part of the business and our processes suit that.

“Unlike some of our competitors, Finance Ireland is a fully regulated entity, offering superior protection to customers.

“Basically we’re saying it’s a good time to bring your loan back home.”

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