The finance brokers who helped Cambridge & Counties reach £635 million of lending balances have been thanked at a celebration of their work.
Almost 40 brokers from across England and Wales gathered in Leicestershire to applaud the partnerships which have enabled Cambridge & Counties to deliver its lending to an increasing number of SME businesses and property investors.
The event at Kilworth House culminated in two awards being presented to firms in recognition of the volume and value of business they have brought to the Bank in the past year.
Yorkshire’s Real Property Finance made it four successful years in a row by being named Residential Broker of the Year. Kingsbarn Capital, based in Manchester, walked away with the Commercial Broker of the Year Award.
Cambridge & Counties’ chief executive officer Mike Kirsopp and commercial director Simon Lindley hosted the event. Mike said:
“The partnerships we and the brokers have forged play a huge part in growing our businesses together."
“It has been another record year for Cambridge & Counties and huge credit for that goes to the brokers who have helped their clients add significant value to their businesses thanks to our teamwork.”
The awards were presented to Andy Churchill and Alan Laslett of Sheffield’s Real Property Finance and Paul Armstrong of Kingsbarn Capital. Paul, who has been working with Cambridge & Counties on behalf of his clients since the Bank’s launch in 2012, said:
“Cambridge & Counties has been an important partner over the last four years and during that time we have completed a significant volume of business which included a number of larger, more complex commercial transactions.
“It's ‘can do’ approach, availability of experienced staff, access to decision makers and speed of getting deals done has often been the deciding factors when placing deals with them. We look forward with working with Cambridge & Counties going forward in 2017 and beyond.”
Simon said:
“Paul is very well connected in the North West business community, having established a loyal client base for whom he sources a range of residential and commercial investment and development funding. Paul was one of the first brokers to join the Bank’s panel and consistently presents a regular source of quality funding opportunities. Many of his clients have repeatedly returned to the Bank for further funding requests given the quality of the bespoke service the Bank provides.”
Andy Churchill said:
“We enjoy a very strong and heathy relationship with the Bank which continuously displays a ‘can do' approach to the sometimes quite challenging requests that we make of them."
“Its staff’s ability to think out of the box and personally underwrite deals puts them at a distance from the more tick box mentality displayed by other lenders. Long may this continue to the mutual benefit of all.”
Simon said:
“Andy and Alan have won our broker award every year since the Bank launched and that says a huge amount for the number of deals we have done together and their value to our business. The lending spans residential, industrial and retail and stretches across Yorkshire and the Humber.”
The brokers at Kilworth House came from the Bank’s key markets based around its offices in Leicester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Cambridge and Bristol.
From the East Midlands they included Jo Sutton of Empire Corporate Finance in Sileby, Julian Lawrence of Choice Business Finance in Nottingham, and Nicolle Taylor and Jordan Teeder from Fiducia Commercial Solutions in Newark.
West Midlands brokers included Ajeet Karandikar of ACDS Consultants in Sutton Coldfield, Paul Atkinson and Russell Martin of Finance 4 Business in Kingsbury, Tim Bamber of 2XL Commercial Finance in Macclesfield and Mike Hobbis of Grosvenor Equity Partners in Essington.
From the East and South East of England came Sanjay Rughani and Manish Babla of Sterling Professional Finance in North Harrow, Justin Lavery of Aston Shaw in Norwich, Sonny Gosai of Clever Lending in Grantham and Brian Wallace of Anglia Commercial Solutions in Spalding.
Brokers from the North included Keith Miller of Miller Associates in Warrington, Wayne Goodman of Platinum Money in Wakefield, Mark Jerman of Watts Commercial in Nantwich, Gareth Rees of GDP Funding in Manchester, Brian Walters of Newsource Commercial Finance in Harrogate, and Rit Jogia and Gary Burns of Midlands Asset Finance in South Normanton.
And from the South West and Wales came Simon Harrison of Flexible Commercial Funding in Newport, Peter Bailey of Blueberry Commercial in Dorchester, Steve Barratt of South West Business Finance in Bath, John Harris of Genie Lending in Wimborne and Max Stinchcombe of Advance Commercial Funding in Stonehouse.