<
p>Dragonfly Property Finance has completed a bridging facility in the £62.5 million refinancing of the Co-operative Bank.
B&C’s Jason McGee-Abe spoke to Jonathan Samuels, CEO of Dragonfly Property Finance, to find out more about the deal…
Last week, B&C published the story on how Dragonfly and Capital A Finance worked together in writing the £62.5 million bridging facility to refinance a called in Co-operative Bank senior loan. The loan had been secured by way of a £100 million-valued portfolio of prime residential Central London property, owned by an offshore private family.
This particular refinancing deal is secured against five residential blocks in the West End of London and is one of the first Co-operative Bank loans to be refinanced following its recapitalisation strategy that it announced in June this year.
The structure of the deal and variety of assets was very complex with four different jurisdictions - three offshore and one in the UK.
Each property being used as security was in a different special purpose vehicle (SPV) under a different jurisdiction, with each within different holding companies, also in different jurisdictions.
The property values of those used as the security were relatively vanilla; established properties with rental income which didn’t need to be developed.
Jonathan said: “The time that it took to complete, from the first month in which the borrower felt that they were in a good place to take on the bridging loan, we turned the deal around in under two months.”
Upon maturity, Capital A and Dragonfly will more than likely aid with the subsequent investment loan, this will be available at far more manageable rates than those of a bridging facility.
The deal was introduced to a Dragonfly BDM by an existing introducer broker. Dragonfly then contacted Capital A Finance, which it had been in dialogue with for several months, to see if both firms could work together as partners with this loan.
Speaking in a statement about the loan Daniel Austin, Chief Executive of Capital A, said: “The last 12 months have been exceptionally busy for us, with an average of one deal closing every couple of weeks, and we are delighted to have arranged our largest refinancing to date.”
Dragonfly did not work with Co-op directly with the refinance as there was an intermediary in place to work with.
Leading law firm HowardKennedyFsi led the Co-op refinancing of the Co-operative Bank and acted for long term existing client Dragonfly Property Finance. The law firm sealed the deal alongside Reed Smith, which acted on behalf of partner lender in the deal Capital A Finance Plc.
Jonathan said of the law firm: “We appointed them as we had full confidence that they could turned this deal round for us and they were more than capable with this bridging loan. Their track record is excellent and they’re all about service. They’ve actually priced-down previous bridging deals for us before to ensure completions, so we’re glad they came to the party for us in this instance, which would have been a big earner for the law firm.”
Steve Clinning Partner of Transaction Finance at HowardKennedyFsi, commented: “Dragonfly Property Finance is one of the fastest growing lenders in the market today. This deal was particularly interesting for not only the large sums of money involved or the Co-op Bank’s household name, but also for the fact that the loan serviced a variety of companies incorporated in various jurisdictions. We look forward to continuing to work with Dragonfly and watching the company steadily grow in to one of the UK’s largest and innovative lending companies.”
Responding to whether there is a prospect of working with Capital A Finance again, Jonathan said: “There’s an appetite to do more things in the future but nothing’s set in stone. There was a mutually beneficial relationship with this deal and if the opportunity arises again and there is a similar deal in the future, we would certainly look at the possibility of partnering with them again.”
Dragonfly has advanced around 1,200 loans since it launched and this loan marks its largest completion to date.
Dragonfly Property Finance has completed a bridging facility in the £62.5 million refinancing of the Co-operative Bank.
B&C's Jason McGee-Abe spoke to Jonathan Samuels, CEO of Dragonfly.
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