Shawbrook provides £4m bridge for experienced investor

The challenger bank provided the £4,042,318 bridging loan at 66% LTV in one of the largest bridging deals it has completed so far in 2017.

The loan was brokered by Pure Funding Solutions, which was presented with the deal by one of its introducing partners RJW Associates, who acted as the customer-facing intermediary.

The client was an existing customer of Shawbrook, who had a large property portfolio, but required the bridging finance to repay a £3m development loan with a high street bank.

After the development loan has been repaid, the remaining funds will be used for ongoing projects and refurbishment costs spread across the investor’s portfolio.

Shawbrook was comfortable to lend against the aggregate value of the security properties.

However, during the application process, it was found that the company ownership structure was more complex and this needed to be addressed.

Despite there being an existing relationship, the company structure had a trust arrangement in place which meant the Shawbrook teams had to reissue the loan documentation.

Instead of allowing this to become a drawn-out process, Shawbrook’s in-house legal panel provided Pure Funding Solutions with two options as to how it could proceed.

As both limited companies involved in the trust agreement were both UK based with the same customer acting as 100% shareholder, Shawbrook’s group credit committee decided that there was no additional risk involved and the loan proceeded.

That was until Shawbrook had to address some issues around planning permission for the relevant properties within the portfolio.

Some of the aspects in the original development fell outside of the approved plans attached to the planning permission, which meant there was a delay in the local authority approving the minor change.

Once the local authority approval was received on time, the loan was completed shortly after and the client was entitled to a 0.25% discount to either the loan margin or arrangement fee due to them being an existing customer of Shawbrook.

Danny Churchill, director at Pure Funding Solutions, praised those involved in the complicated case, which he said was managed efficiently from start to finish.

“I would like to extend my gratitude to Rob Winterhalter at RJW Associates, the introducing partner on this loan.

“He was a fundamental point of communication and this deal simply wouldn’t have completed without the efforts of his team.

“I would like to thank Andy Thurston and the rest of the short-term loan team at Shawbrook for the service they provided to our client, which was as intelligent as we have come to expect.”

Emma Cox, sales director of commercial mortgages at Shawbrook (pictured above), said it was a pleasure to see the bank’s teams combining so well with its intermediaries.

“There were many moving parts to this loan, especially around the planning permission decision which delayed completion.

“I would like to thank Pure Funding Solutions who were patient and professional throughout, especially when it came to explaining our criteria and conditions to the client.”