Mortgage News
Kensington confirms ‘business as usual’ following sale announcement
South African-owned Investec confirmed Kensington’s potential sale this morning, which is likely to bolster the brand’s ability to innovate spurring on the resurgence of the specialist lending market.
Investec confirmed several bidders have ‘expressed an interest in the lender’ and Fenchurch Advisory’s appointment to conduct a sale.
Investec will also continue to lend as a mortgage brand in the UK.
Alex Hammond, head of marketing communications at Kensington, said: “Over the past few years, Kensington has become adept at dealing with change. It’s business as usual and part of that will continue to be about launching new products that match our risk appetite with untapped market demand.
He added: “It’s a really positive time, especially for the specialist market and we are used to taking responsible risk decisions which correspond with the great demand for this product area. From an intermediary perspective, we will want to continue to provide for this market hand in hand with our intermediary partners.”
The Investec group will hold a pre-close briefing on 20 March 2014, which may offer an update on the progress of the sale.
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Investec is an international specialist bank and asset manager operating in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Australia among other countries.
In its half-yearly report in November last year, the group reported the UK Specialist Bank’s operating profit of GBP76.1m, but legacy business losses of GBP49.2m.
The combined group’s current market capitalisation is approximately GBP3.4 bn.