OakNorth Celebrates Five-Year Anniversary of Having Dedicated Lending Team in the North West

OakNorth, the digital bank for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs, celebrates the five-year anniversary of the appointment of its inaugural North West lending team focused on supporting businesses throughout the region.

Based out of its Manchester office at Ship Canal House, OakNorth has completed c.£450m worth of bespoke debt finance loans since its launch in September 2015 to some of the region’s most innovative and entrepreneurial businesses. In addition to supporting these firms across multiple industry sectors, including hospitality, healthcare, manufacturing, business services and real estate, the digital bank has also built a strong reputation for working with some of the region’s largest private equity firms.

Some of the stand-out transactions completed in the last five years, include:

• A £15m loan to private equity-backed, creative cocktail bar and restaurant group, The Alchemist, to open 10 new sites over the next three years (loan completed in February 2024);
• An £18m loan to leading Manchester-based privately owned and managed property investment and development company, Hurstwood Holdings, to develop 75 new homes across three separate residential schemes (loan completed in March 2024);
• A £6.5m loan to Cheshire-based health and fitness club operator, Total Fitness, to support future growth opportunities beyond the core health club business (loan completed in July 2023);
• A £16.5m loan to MoneyPlus, a provider of consumer debt advice, used to scale up its operations to manage an expected increase in demand over the next few years amidst the cost-of-living crisis (loan completed in June 2023);
• Facilities totalling £1.75m to BTTC Infrastructure, a management consultancy focused on rail infrastructure projects, to support a management buyout (loan completed in July 2022).

Ben Barbanel, Head of Debt Finance at OakNorth, said: “Since inception, we’ve had a dedicated operations and customer services team in Manchester, and we continue to build on this with the expansion of our business banking offering. Five years ago, we decided to have a dedicated team on the ground in Manchester to serve businesses in the North West. The work done by the team has meant numerous firms have achieved their growth ambitions, creating hundreds of new homes and jobs in the process. We remain as committed as ever to our mission to empower entrepreneurs, and will continue to invest in building our team, capabilities, and reach across the North West.”