Buy-to-let lender’s board backs £1.6bn merger

Charter Court Financial Services has revealed strong results for its first full year as a listed company – just as it gives its backing to a merger that would take it private again.

The board of Wolverhampton-based buy-to-let lender has backed plans for a deal with OneSavings Bank which would create a £1.6bn business.

The plans would see Charter Court shareholders take a 45% stake in the combined group and it will now be put to shareholders of both companies.

Charter Court has irrevocable undertakings of support from shareholders representing 33.1% of the business and a letter of intent from a shareholder, Merian, which has a 14.6% stake.

The combined group will be led by OSB’s current chief executive and CFO Andy Golding and April Talintyre, with Charter Court’s chairman Sir Malcolm Williamson heading the board.

It will be headquartered at OSB’s current base in Chatham while Charter Court’s current headquarters in Wolverhampton “will be retained as a centre of excellence”.

Sir Malcolm Williamson said: “The strategic fit of the two banks is compelling and will bring together complementary strengths and capabilities to enhance our customer proposition and create a leading specialist lender that is very well positioned to deliver sustainable returns and take advantage of future growth opportunities.”

Charter Court floated in September 2017 and has seen its share price rise by around one-quarter in the last 18 months.

It has today revealed that 2018 was “another strong year of profitable growth” with pre-tax profits up 42% to £158.2m.

Ian Lonergan, chief executive of Charter Court, said: “In our first full year as a listed company, we again continued to meet or exceed all our guidance and targets as we demonstrated the capability of our specialist lending platform to drive significant growth from the increasing sophistication and professionalisation of demand in our chosen buy to let and specialist residential mortgage markets.”