Bridging loan fund announces best quarterly performance

By Bridging Loan Directory 12th July 2019

Whitehall Capital Fund (‘Whitehall Capital’ or ‘the Company’), the specialist commercial and residential property bridge financing fund, is delighted to announce that it has recorded its best quarterly performance since it was established in March 2017 – posting a return of 2.63% in the April-June period.

The Fund attributes this success to the fact that as its reputation in the market is growing, it is increasingly obtaining more pricing power when quoting for loans. It has established new relationships with some high-quality midsized builders and is now their first port of call when they require bridge loans for their projects.

The Fund has had a strong first half to this year, being almost fully invested for most of the period and delivering a return of 5.2% – particularly satisfying in light of the general slowdown in the property market and overall low transaction volumes.

The Fund has built up a varied portfolio of loans since the start of the year which includes the following:

£1.26m loan for a mixed-use development, valued at £2.2m in North London
£740k loan for a 4-star boutique hotel, valued at £1.2m in Oxfordshire
£714k loan for a scheme of 30 flats with a commercial ground floor, valued at £1.4m in County Durham
£750k loan for three flats valued at £1.1m, located in the area of Little Switzerland, Birmingham

Whitehall Capital is a specialist bridging loans company that was founded in March 2017 by Amram Capital – an independent wealth management and investment advisory firm. It issues short term loans (normally 3 to 12 months) that are primarily secured against residential UK property though properties may be residential, commercial, mixed use or land with planning permission. The fund typically lends to owners or developers of real estate assets, does not undertake direct purchase of properties, and ideally targets loans secured against properties worth between £1m and £5m.

Anthony Bodenstein, CEO of Whitehall Capital, said:

“We are really thrilled to have recorded our strongest quarter since inception. Since its establishment, the Fund has delivered a net return of 18.15%, significantly outperforming many stock markets and hedge funds.

“We recognised back in 2015 that banks’ decisions to pull out from or reduce their exposure to the property sector combined with the introduction of regulatory requirements such as Basel III was resulting in a lower supply of bank financing to real estate market participants, and in turn, more expensive loans.

“We set out to alleviate this issue and are proud of our achievements so far – the Fund has completed 55 loans to date and we are continuing to rapidly expand our loan book. Key to our success has been that as a sub-fund of Amram Capital, we are able to deploy capital extremely quickly and therefore our turnaround time for loans is much shorter than our competitors; we completed on our £714k loan in County Durham in just five days.

“These features have ensured the consistent deal flow and strong returns that the fund has delivered and I now look forward to taking its success to new heights.”