West One Loans completes £20m bridging loan

Specialist lender West One Loans has completed one of its largest loans, after providing a £20m first charge bridging facility against a high value site in a prime London location.

The property was unencumbered, and the injection of money allows the client to develop their business further through acquisition of another company.

After their original lender pulled out of the deal late on, speed was of the essence – and West One Loans were able to complete the deal in just 18 working days, all while meeting their commercial and risk appetite framework – such was the quality of the case.

West One Loans has developed a working relationship with the client over many years, which helped the process of underwriting and securing the funding go smoothly.

West One Loans is currently lending at a rate of £600m per annum in bridging loans.

Stephen Wasserman, Managing Director of West One Loans, said: “The challenges of completing a complex deal like this are huge, but through our Premier Loan team – that includes our most experienced Underwriters – and Investor Services team, we have the ability to complete deals like this quickly and efficiently by funding through our bank of Professional Clients.

“This was truly a team effort, and I’d like to thank Nick Russell from Creation Property Finance for bringing us the opportunity, and Stephen Evans-Jones at Fieldfisher LLP for their support in getting the deal over the line.

“This is also a credit to our approach. We take a pragmatic view of more complex cases and larger loans over £10m, as well as borrowers with different circumstances. That means we do deals which others can’t through effective and agile risk management and dedicated resourcing. This commercial approach to deal-making is at the heart of how we’ve always done business. We’re delighted to get this over the line, with it being one of our largest loans to date.”