Last week we announced that Cheval had won the majority of broker votes to be named Bridger of the Year, now we can exclusively reveal the other winners of the 2009 Bridging Awards, decided by our panel of experts.

 

The Service Excellence Award went to London-based short term lender, Masthaven, with managing director Andrew Bloom commenting: “It is a great achievement for Masthaven to win this award. We pride ourselves on offering our introducers and their clients extremely high service levels. This is a fantastic tribute to the staff at Masthaven who work hard every day to meet the service standards that are demanded of us by the bridging finance industry. I look forward to 2010 and would like to thank everyone who helped Masthaven to achieve this award.”

 

Newcomer of the Year was awarded to the recently re-branded Alternative Bridging Corporation. Managing director at ABC, Jonathan Rubins, said: “Alternative Bridging Corporation are delighted to be recognised by Bridging and Commercial as a pro-active and alternative lender in the short term finance market. We came into the bridging loan arena after identifying a gap in the market for a lender that specialised in larger loans, particularly in the commercial sector and believe that we have made a considerable impact in improving both the perception of bridging finance and the service that is offered to borrowers and brokers.”

 

The Most Innovative Lender was given to Mayfair Bridging, with Shoaib Bux from the firm thanking their introducers and packaging partners for their support throughout the year.

 

Best Specialist Packager was awarded to The Funding Operation. Rhiannon Gray-Minton, managing director, said: “This award is testament to all the hard work that my colleagues have put into serving the needs of our introducing intermediaries.

 

“Our main strength within the market is our ability to take cases that are outside the norm, place them with our growing list of private and institutional lenders and push them through to completion in the shortest possible time. A huge thank you to everybody that has supported us this year and made this award possible.”

 

The award for Best Regional Bridger went to Hampshire Trust, which was recognised for supporting local businesses as well as being a national lender.

 

Devon and Cornwall Securities won the award for Best Specialist Commercial Lender, and the Bridging & Commercial 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award was given to industry stalwart and current consultant at Masthaven, Sidney Cohen, who has been in the bridging finance industry for over thirty five years. Describing the award as an “honour”, he has shared some of his experiences with us in an exclusive article, which will be published later this week.