Candy sells lender Fortwell

Christian Candy’s CPC Group has sold its property lending business, Fortwell Capital, to the company’s management. [caption id="attachment_915855" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dan Smith[/caption] Executive director Dan Smith and head of real estate finance Arthur Jennings have acquired the business, which has lent £1.2bn since it was established in 2011. Following the sale of Fortwell, CPC’s primary focus will be its joint venture equity platform Orlandis Capital, which invests alongside the likes of Barratt and Inland Homes. Candy said: “Fortwell has been incredibly successful and established a strong platform and reputation as one of the UK’s most successful real estate lenders. “Dan and Arthur’s aspirations for Fortwell are significant and I believe they are extremely well placed to drive Fortwell Capital forward.” The sale comes in the wake of Candy’s bitter legal battle with CPC borrower Mark Holyoake. Candy, alongside his brother Nick, successfully defended a £100m claim, in which they were accused of “coercing” Holyoake out of millions of pounds by signing punitive new loan agreements after CPC lent him £12m to buy Belgravia mansion Grosvenor Gardens House, SW1, in late 2011. Christian had also been accused by Holyoake of saying he would “go nuclear” on him and “take a wrecking ball to his life”. These “spiteful” claims were found to be untrue and Holyoake was judged to have “resorted to forgery, deceit and impersonation” and ordered to pay in excess of £11m of costs. However, the judge determined in December: “None of the protagonists emerge from the trial with great credit. Each has been shown to have been willing to lie when they consider their commercial interests justify them doing so.” Fortwell, which was previously known as Omni Capital Partners until it rebranded in 2016, will continue to manage CPC’s existing loan book of around £120m. [caption id="attachment_915854" align="alignleft" width="150"] Arthur Jennings[/caption] Smith and Jennings will look for new sources of equity to grow the business and expand its book. The sale does not mean Fortwell is out of the new lending market, as it will continue to “have an ongoing relationship with CPC” and “existing equity sources”. The business has typically targeted issuing higher-returning loans, including bridging loans and development loans between £10m and £50m and going up to £100m. It operates across sectors and geographies but specialises in residential development.  Smith joined Fortwell in 2013, having previously been a director at Eurohypo, now part of Wells Fargo. Jennings joined the company in May last year from QNB Group, where he was a relationship manager. He previously worked at Royal Bank of Scotland for almost a decade, including in its global restructuring group “bad bank”. Smith said: “It continues to be a difficult market for developers to finance their projects and, as such, there is significant demand for development and structured finance. “That demand, coupled with Fortwell’s proven track record, means we see incredible potential to continue to grow the business and the loan book, especially by partnering with new sources of capital. “We are in discussions with a number of potential investors at the moment and are excited by this opportunity to further establish Fortwell as the real estate lender of choice in the UK.” To send feedback, e-mail david.hatcher@egi.co.uk or tweet @hatcherdavid or @estatesgazette