GLI Finance rebrands to Sancus Lending Group
Alternative finance group GLI Finance has officially rebranded to Sancus Lending Group, after the name change was approved at its annual shareholder meeting today.
The company said that the change in name reflects its concentration on the alternative property finance sector, which has proven to be the major growth area in the business over the last few years.
GLI Finance’s board had proposed the name change last month.
Read more: GLI losses widened during pandemic
The group specialises in property bridging and development financing from £500,000 to £10m plus throughout the UK, Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man with a niche in dealing with more complex lending proposals.
Alongside Sancus’ own proprietary capital, its funding sources include a £75m credit facility with Honeycomb Investment Trust, the Sancus Loan Note Programme and Sancus Co-Funders.
Read more: GLI Finance share price soars as it secures backing for restructure
Sancus Co-Funders include private clients, high net worth individuals, family offices, trusts and institutions.
Sancus has recently funded a £4.9m development loan to build 27 houses in Cornwall, a €1.05m (£903,747) bridging loan on a 23 apartment complex in South County Dublin and a £9.1m loan to build and develop 11 houses in Jersey.
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“The rebrand of GLI to Sancus and the subsequent concentration on our core business of property finance comes at a time when we are seeing a very vibrant, active and buoyant property market across all our jurisdictions, particularly in the UK and Ireland where there have been sizable increases in demand for residential housing, supported by a range of government initiatives,” said Andrew Whelan, chief executive of Sancus Lending Group.
“We’re delighted to be supporting a number of schemes focused on the changes in “working from home/office” hybrid models brought about post-pandemic.
“We have also seen an increase in activity in the big cities and we are providing finance to some large urban projects in the Midlands and North West of England as well as Dublin, Ireland.”
GLI Finance shareholders recently voted in favour of a restructuring of the business, which included the refinancing of existing bonds and a £4m equity fundraise.
In its 2020 financial results, the group reported an operating loss of £5.5m – up from 2019’s operating loss of £900,000. This was attributed to “the runoff of the BMS UK Fund and on balance sheet loans”, as well as lower transaction revenue during the pandemic.
