Link Loans relaunches

11 March 2010 | By Natalie Thomas

In October 2009 sister firm bridging lender Link Lending was wound down but Link Loans continued to operate on a small scale.

The relaunched lender will see David Johnson and Philip George both sit on the executive board with Stel Charalambous as finance director, Maeve Ward, head of sales and Kam Sanghani, former managing director of White Label Loans as head of operations.  

Stephen Johnson will support the team as a non executive director.

Link Loans will offer loans up to 75% LTV for employed and 70% LTV for self employed, with rates from 11.9%.  

Loan amounts are from £5,000 to £30,000 and loan terms are from three to 20 years and the products will be distributed through a panel of secured loan brokers.

The lender has new equity funding from the RBS Special Opportunities Fund, managed by RBS Equity Finance, and new debt funding from RBS Financial Institutions. 

David Johnson, CEO of Link Loans, says: “The market has never been better for a prime lender to enter with massive unsatisfied demand.  The old, secured lending business model relied too much on ancillary sales such as insurance, and as a consequence migrated to increasing risk and reducing margins to drive volume. 

“The subsequent pressure on income, combined with huge restrictions on funding, forced lenders to withdraw.  We have brought Link Loans back to the market with a realistic, common-sense model that is transparent and simple, offering sensibly priced products with prudent lending criteria.”

Lindsey McMurray, head of RBS Equity Finance, says: “We are delighted to be backing David and Philip in what we believe will be an extremely exciting business in the secured loan market.  We see significant untapped potential in this market and believe Link Loans will help many prime customers with a financial product that sits so well between remortgages and unsecured loans. 

“This investment fits our strategy of backing high quality, growth focussed businesses.”

RBS Asset Management Limited, acting through its Equity Finance division, manages the RBS Special Opportunities Fund, a £1.1bn fund with a broad investment mandate, covering everything from majority equity investment through to mezzanine debt. 

RBS Special Opportunities Fund currently backs over 20 companies across a variety of sectors and has a strong track record in financial services and healthcare.