Black Book Finance arranges £7.2m development finance with Shawbrook Bank

By Bridging Loan Directory 9th April 2018

The Development Finance team at Shawbrook Bank has supported another two funding facilities working alongside Black Book Finance, the all‐finance distributor launched in 2016 by Michael Clapper, Meir Plancey and Adam Brand.

The first was for a £5m facility, secured against a large office block in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, with consent to be converted into 51 apartments. Due to initial planning being secured for 42 apartments, the facility was agreed to be drawn down over three stages. The first being for the acquisition of the building, the second for the conversion works on the first 42 apartments, and the final stage available subject to planning approval for the further 9 apartments.

The facility was sought under extremely tight deadlines, made harder still by last minute legal complications and more than £1m of the client’s deposit at risk, but the team at Black Book Finance worked closely with Lee Hancock and the team at Shawbrook Bank to push the transaction forward.

For the second facility, Shawbrook have been working on a £4.2m facility for another Black Book client, this time for the conversion of a building in Ealing, West London, to be converted into 8 flats, with 6 further units to the rear, and all above a commercial unit. Given the time required to generate the necessary construction reports, and the pressure to repay the existing lender prior to default, Shawbrook agreed to step in with a short‐term bridge for £2.1m – agreed and completed in only 4 days – to allow the existing lender to repaid. Once the construction reports have been finalised, the bridge will convert to a development facility, with a further £2.1m funded to allow the conversion works to complete.

Michael Clapper, pictured, Executive Chairman at Black Book Finance said,

“Development projects are never straightforward, even when they might appear so at first, so our team fully understands the requirement to always be ready to sort out the inevitable curveballs whenever they might appear. This level of focus and commitment has allowed Black Book to establish itself as a go‐to source for all types of large and/or complex funding requirements. The projects in Borehamwood and Ealing were no different, and once again our team delivered an outstanding effort, pulling out every stop to ensure it got sorted in time. Once again, the team at Shawbrook showed the same level of commitment, and only by working in partnership were we able to get the job done for our clients.”

Terry Woodley, Director, Development Finance at Shawbrook Bank commented;

“Our partnership with Black Book Finance continues to go from strength to strength, and we’re seeing how their growing reputation for high quality delivery is translating into higher numbers of new business enquiries. We share a commitment to applying specialist expertise and a can‐do approach to each transaction, pulling together and going the extra miles in order to deliver great customer outcomes. We’re proud of what we’ve done with Black Book so far and looking forward to working with them again.”