OakNorth Bank has acquired a 50% stake in property lender ASK Partners, which has lent in excess of £1bn across over 90 transactions through its online platform.
The transaction cements a five-year working relationship between the two businesses, who have provided structured debt to SME housebuilders and property entrepreneurs across 45 joint transactions.
Ben Barbanel, head of debt finance at OakNorth Bank who will be joining ASK’s Board, says: “ASK is a business OakNorth Bank has worked with for several years, enabling us to provide the funding solutions our clients need. Like us, ASK has a strong focus on customer experience and credit quality and has built a fast-growing and profitable business. The fintech platform it’s developed to enable institutional investors, family offices, and high net worth individuals to participate in its transactions, enables fast subscription of loans and a strong network effect where many of its borrowers also end up becoming investors.”
The transaction follows on the heels of OakNorth’s first acquisition in December last year of cash flow forecasting business, Fluidly, which has over 1,000 UK accounting firms as subscribers.