Investec Real Estate appoints Head of Corporate Lending

By Bridging Loan Directory 1st February 2022

Investec, a leading provider of residential and commercial development and investment finance to corporate, institutional and private clients, announces that it has appointed Jonathan Long, pictured above, as Head of Corporate Lending in its Real Estate team.

Investec has enjoyed a strong first nine months of the financial year, exceeding its lending targets with £705 million of new commitments since April 2021 across its corporate and institutional client base.

Highlights include £300 million of residential for rent and sale, £85 million of office and £120 million of industrial lending.

Having joined Investec in 2016, Jonathan has since closed over £600 million of real estate loans to a mix of UK and global corporates and institutions in both the development and investment space across all real estate asset classes.

Prior to Investec, he spent three years at BLME, having started his career in Ernst & Young’s Banking & Capital Markets team.

Under Jonathan’s leadership, Investec’s corporate offering will continue to focus on underwriting larger ticket size transactions, driven in part by its expanding distribution capabilities and leveraging its deep sector expertise to partner with third party lenders seeking exposure to the attractive returns available from the high growth UK real estate sector.

2022 will also see Investec continuing to differentiate itself via its holistic real estate platform, offering alternative funding options, such as equity funding, usually alongside senior debt; portfolio lending to include both investment and development risk; and NAV facilities for fund clients in partnership with the Investec Fund Solutions team.

Mark Bladon Head of Real Estate, Investec, commented:

“Since joining Investec, Jonathan has played a key role in expanding our corporate client base, whilst also working closely with other functions in the real estate space to enhance our offering for both global and domestic investors seeking exposure to the UK market.

Our client-centric, disciplined approach and 30 year track record has underpinned our strong performance this financial year, which we are well placed to replicate as we move into 2022.”

Jonathan Long, Head of Corporate Lending, Investec, commented:

“This is an exciting time for Investec as we emerge on the other side of the Covid tunnel.

Our market leading Living platform has underpinned the team’s deep understanding of the operational real estate space, and we see an opportunity to build on this to be the funding partner of choice for borrowers seeking to grow their exposure to the industrial sector, as well as more nascent sectors including life sciences, self storage and dark kitchens.

We also believe that providing increasingly sophisticated and discerning clients with access to a range of real estate services, including our fund solutions offering, will allow us to maintain our market leading position.”