Following a £10 million equity funding round late last year and a period of “rapid expansion” at Blend Network, the team is now expanding their UK local and regional footprint “with the opening of a number of satellite offices across the UK regions.”
In March, Blend Network announced the appointment of veteran property and finance expert Chris Mason “as Lending Director to lead [their] mid-country lending operations based in Cambridgeshire.”
In April, the specialist development finance lender announced “the appointment of Philip Anderson as Lending Manager to lead Northern Ireland lending operations based in Belfast.”
And now, the team is pleased “to announce the appointment of senior property expert Ian Granger as Senior Lending Manager to lead our South West and Wales lending operations from Bristol.”
The news of their regional expansion comes at “an exciting time and follows [their] recent completion of an equity funding round led by several notable family offices and experienced investors who also committed funding to deploy across the UK residential market.”
Blend Network recently announced their intention “to deploy £120 million of committed capital from family offices.”
If you are a property developer or a broker and “have a project that you are looking to get funding for, please contact us on enquiries@blendnetwork.com.”
Earlier this month, specialist development finance lender Blend Network stepped up its regional expansion “to deploy £120m development finance to SME property developers.”
Blend Network announced on May 3 the opening of a new Northern Ireland office in Belfast and “the appointment of property lending expert Philip Anderson as Lending Manager to lead Northern Ireland lending operations.”
As noted in an update shared with CI, Blend has been funding SME property developers in Northern Ireland “since 2018 and has now decided to further step up its strong commitment to the Northern Irish market following the market strength witnessed over the past 12 months.”
The arrival of Philip will “help BLEND deploy a large pool of funding recently committed by several family offices and a group of prominent investors.”
Philip’s appointment will also help BLEND “expand its fast-growing regional footprint following the recent appointment of veteran property and finance expert Chris Mason as lending director based in Cambridgeshire.”
The news comes at an exciting time for the business and follows BLEND’s recent completion of “an equity funding round led by several notable family offices and experienced investors who also committed funding to deploy across the UK residential market.”
BLEND will offer “up to 70% LTGDV on development finance and bridging loans in Northern Ireland.”
BLEND Network is a specialist development finance lender “backed by leading family offices and heavy weight investors such as Cyrus Ardalan, former Vice Chairman of Barclays and current Chairman of OakNorth Bank, Citigroup Global Markets Ltd and CAF Financial Solutions Ltd, Jean-Phillipe Blochet, co founder of Brevan Howard, a $40bn macro hedge fund, the family Office of former CEO and current Chairman of Publicis Group Maurice Levy, and Nico Paraskevas, a former senior executive at Glencore.”
Philip has 10 years of experience “in banking and finance and a deep knowledge of the Northern Irish property market.”
His most recent position “was Relationship Manager in the corporate banking property team at Allied Irish Bank where he focused on providing specialist development finance to residential and commercial schemes across Northern Ireland.”
Philip’s extensive banking, finance and real estate career “included a role within the Advisory Practice at PwC.”
Yann Murciano, CEO at BLEND Network, commented:
“We are delighted to welcome Philip to our growing lending team. Philip has a breadth and depth of experience across the real estate and finance sectors, as well as extensive regional expertise, which will significantly help us scale our loan book. Philip’s appointment will allow us to expand our presence on the ground in Northern Ireland and his presence will help deploy our capital to the Northern Ireland property development market.”
Philip Anderson, Manager at BLEND Network, remarked:
“I am very pleased to be joining BLEND at such an exciting time. BLEND is a dynamic and forward-thinking organization with a strong appetite to offer development finance to experienced developers. While there are a number of factors that continue to hinder the supply of new housing stock coming to the market, I am hopeful that by increasing the availability of development finance it will go some way to increase the supply of new homes in Northern Ireland. Please feel free to get in touch with me if you wish to discuss any lending opportunities.”
