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OakNorth reports £430m of lending since January

Tom Belger | 15:50 Monday 14th August 2017

OakNorth has reported a surge in lending this year after revealing it has lent £430m since January to take its loan book to over £710m.

The specialist bank has a further £700m in the pipeline with its loans contributing to the creation of over 3,000 new jobs and the development of 2,000 homes.

The lending rise comes as larger lenders continue to retrench from the SME lending amid economic uncertainty.

“At the beginning of the year, we said that we would lend £500m to SMEs based on our pipeline at the time, so to reach £430m with another four months left to go in the year, is an amazing accomplishment,” said Ben Barbanel, head of OakNorth's debt finance team (pictured above).

“In addition to this, we've had over £100m in repayments, demonstrating the quality of businesses we've lent to, and a quarter of our deal flow now comes from existing clients – a testament to the strong relationships developed by our team.”

OakNorth has also announced two new hires: Hemesh Patel and Eamonn O'Rourke have joined as property finance directors.

Hemesh has spent the past eight years in structured property finance within the asset management team of Investec, while Eamonn moves from Titlestone Property Finance, where he managed a portfolio of over £120m.

The new appointments take OakNorth's total headcount to 140, up from 110 at the beginning of the year.

“If we want to maintain the speed and service that has helped set us apart from other lenders in the market so far, we need to continue developing and scaling the team in line with this,” added Ben.

“Hemesh and Eamonn have both demonstrated that they have the independent drive and commercial acumen required to replicate the success of the past two years and propel us even further.”

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