Record month for specialist lender
SPECIALIST finance provider Together completed £105m of new lending in March, with 697 loans across first and second charge mortgages, short-term finance, auction finance and commercial loans.
Commercial chief executive Marc Goldberg said is was the Cheadle-based company’s highest monthly lending in its 42-year history, adding that buy-to-let lending was particularly strong, fuelled in part by the April stamp duty hike for second properties.
He added: “Demand for bridging finance remained robust in this quarter, following an increase of nearly 65% in 2015, and our auction division saw a record number of transactions in March.
“This is testament to the speed of our service, which is essential in auction purchases where the tight deadlines may be difficult for a mainstream lender to meet.”
Last month the business was granted full authorisation from the Financial Conduct Authority for its second charge mortgage business.
It also expanded its Charles Street securitisation programme by £325m, bringing the total facility to £1bn, with the maturity extended to 2021.
The securitisation has been in place since 2007 and supported by RBS, Lloyds Bank, Natixis and HSBC, with Barclays also now joining the programme and committing £100m in this new transaction.
The Charles Street securitisation programme, rated Aa2 by Moody’s and AA by DBRS, sits alongside Together’s £255m Lakeside securitisation, which was introduced last year, and also the group’s capital markets bond issuance of £300m.
In the 12 months to December 2015 annual new lending stood at £878m. As at December 2015 loan balances exceeded £1.6bn.
