The Five Minute Interview with Richard King, Business Development Manager, Ortus Secured Finance

By Tony Sanchez 5th December 2017

Ortus Secured Finance are a secured lender providing short-term facilities in the commercial and unregulated residential sectors. Ortus Secured Finance will consider a wide variety of secured facilities for customers with good asset cover.

Ortus Secured Finance also have experience and involvement in the pub sector and are therefore able to consider loans involving leisure assets such as pubs, hotels and restaurants.

We speak to business development manager, Richard King:

What is the best thing about being in the bridging finance business?

I cover the whole of the country so get to work with a wide range of brokers, and see a huge variety of deals.

Our lending criteria is really broad, so one minute I can be offering terms on a £20,000,000 commercial portfolio, and the next, lending someone £150,000 to buy their business premises.

I also love the ‘can do’ nature of our business. I’ve sat in meetings with brokers and been able to issue an AIP there and then, and the deal has been in legals 24 hours later.

It’s great to be able to offer this kind of performance.

What keeps you focused?

We have a fantastic offering at Ortus and we have a loyal broker base. My challenge, which I’m relishing, is changing the market perception of the business.

We’re quite rightly known as experts in the leisure space, but this is now a relatively small part of our loan book. This, coupled with some ambitious growth targets for 2018, ensures that my eye is always on the ball.

What qualities do you look for in your employees or colleagues?

To do a good job and retain a sense of humour. Bridging is not always easy so try and have some fun along the way. No one wants to deal with a grump!

Are you an optimist or a pessimist?

An optimist who tries to keep cynicism at bay. Not always easy as a lender!

What did you want to be as a child?

Unsurprisingly the careers adviser at my school didn’t mention BDM. For reasons unknown I wanted to be a chef, although my cooking ability soon curtailed that ambition.

What will be the greatest challenge facing the bridging finance industry in the coming months?

As (yawn) Brexit gets nearer and nearer, confidence could be affected which could feed into valuations.

However, the fundamentals underpinning the market remain, and with Banks still on the side lines, demand for bridging should remain robust.

Who or what makes you laugh?

Rik Mayall. Comedy genius.

Do you dread Monday mornings?

Yes, as it entails trying to coerce my headstrong 5-year-old daughter to school! Once I’ve achieved this I take refuge at my desk, where anything seems possible.

If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I would like my hair to stop falling out and stop turning grey.

With whom would you most like to have dinner?

Jordan Belfort, aka The Wolf of Wall Street. I’d like to ask him if he had the chance to live his life again, would he do it differently. I’m not sure he’d change much.