Foresight provides £25m debt funding facility for Manchester firm

Funds managed by Foresight Group have provided a debt facility of up to £25m to independent principal property lender, Roma Finance.

Foresight, which is headquartered in London but also has a Manchester office, worked with the company to arrange an innovative financing facility tailored to Roma’s business model.

The Foresight debt facility works alongside the company’s existing traditional funding lines provided by RBS and Cambridge Building Society, but provides the management team with more flexibility around the type of business they can write, and therefore will help to accelerate its growth.

Based in Manchester, Roma provides short-term bridging finance to property developers, secured on residential, commercial and industrial properties, throughout England and Wales.

The company has a strong track record, having completed just under 500 transactions since 2014.

Since January 2018, the Company has grown its loan book by almost 50%.

Amy Crofton, investment manager at Foresight, commented: “We have been looking to enter the property bridging market for some time so we are pleased to be able to back Scott and his team at Roma, who have built a profitable, growing business with an exceptionally strong track record.”

Scott Marshall, managing director of Roma, added: “We are delighted to receive this debt fund facility from Foresight Group.

“We have grown rapidly but carefully over the last four years, and the Foresight debt facility will enable us to take a step up to the next level and take advantage of a number of new opportunities.”

He added: “Amy and the Foresight team made sure they really understood what drives our business and where our operational pinch points are, making sure they structured the facility to solve these issues. We look forward to a long and successful relationship with Foresight.”