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they’ll consider taking a charge over equity shares in a major company or an imminent divorce settlement as extra security to help them push the LTV up. The firm also steps in to help top up funding through second charges for developers trying to finish projects, many of which have come to Omni Capital through Candy & Candy contracts. “The decision about where we’ll lend is focused on the asset,” says Locke. “That’s where our experience comes in on the property and underwriting side meaning we can afford to be a bit more flexible about what deals we’ll do and the LTV we will lend up to.”
PeoPle maketh the ProduCt
Getting to that level of flexibility, from £65,000 loans up to £8 million loans, is as much about people as product itself. Experience was crucial in the picking of Omni Capital’s entire team, explains Munford.
John Wheeler, Omni Capital’s sales
director, has been in mortgage lending for 30 years and spent half of his career in the bridging market working with various lenders including Cheval. And the lender’s underwriting division is headed by Ed McAra, former head of underwriting at Goldman Sachs’ specialist lending arm, Money Partners. There are two equity partners in the business – CPC Group and a holding company controlled by Munford. And four directors including Munford, Harvey Shulman, formerly of Southern and District Finance, and two directors from the CPC Group on the finance side. “We needed a number of things to make Omni Capital work,” says Munford. “John, Ed and I bring years of mortgage market, bridging market, lending, credit and distribution experience to the table. But we needed a team to hit the intermediary distribution market which had to have a mix of experience, management skills and sales ability.” This is where Locke comes in. She’s got the sales savvy and management style Munford was looking for. “Liz fit the bill with her background in investment banking where she worked at UBS trading high yield junk bonds and
34 mortgage introducer APRIL 2011
latterly at Deutsche Bank in the wealth management arm. Not to mention her consistent performance selling different products each week on Sugar’s show,” says Munford.
“It was her understanding of how to sell combined with that financial know- how that we liked in Liz. She also has an evident understanding of PR and the importance of the relationship you have with your clients, the intermediary in our case. We wanted someone to spearhead our drive into the intermediary market and she was it.” It’s not every day you get to see a
future colleague put through their paces on television but Locke explains that the whole Apprentice experience has set her up for this role.
“Every task on the show is essentially setting up a new business, building a brand around a product and taking that to market and selling,” she says. “The 10 weeks I completed taught me what a successful business looked like and prepared me for Omni Capital, albeit on a completely different product. “The show was a great eye-opener after university and working in finance. I had been in a sales-dominated role at an investment bank but The Apprentice taught me about marketing, PR, product design and the management aspect of building a team and getting the product out in the best way possible. The whole process set me up and opened my eyes to business. It made me hungry to move into an environment where I was exposed to all those elements rather than pigeonholed into one role.” At Omni Capital, having more than
one role seems par for the course. It isn’t just Locke being given the opportunity to do more than one thing. Munford is keen that while the heart of the business is intermediary distributed short-term finance, there should be room to develop beyond this.
“I think the key is in our name. Omni. Anyone. Anywhere,” says Munford. “We’re looking to go outside the box. We are dealing with the intermediary market but we want a wider scope than that encompassing banks, private equity houses, anyone who has the need for short term funding.
“This is an intermediary product but we
don’t want to rule out dealing directly with property developers for example.” It’s a grand ambition but so far Omni Capital has not applied for Financial Services Authority regulated status which would allow it to engage in regulated mortgage contracts. “We will apply to be regulated once our funding model has moved forward,” says Munford. “We could be regulated now – I run a regulated business in MCIFA, it’s not an issue. But we don’t want to lend on main residential transactions.” He does however plan to reach this status by the time second charge lending comes under the FSA’s banner, due at the end of 2012. Regulation isn’t the only thing on the
cards for Omni Capital. Munford also intends to extend the lender’s product range into the medium term arena offering commercial deals up to three years and buy-to-let deals up to five years. “The recession taught me to be cautious,” says Munford. “Especially in this market place it pays not to overestimate. The longer-term products are intended to give peace of mind to borrowers who want to factor in the flexibility of a bit more time to find an exit and not be forced into selling to meet finance deadlines. The 24 month deals are really 12 month deals with a backstop if it’s needed.”
big ambition Most agree that the relative boom in the bridging and short-term lending market over the past three years has been driven by the lack of finance in the mainstream sector. But what does that mean for the longevity of bridging lenders? “I don’t necessarily see short-term finance increasing but I think it’s more in demand now than it’s ever been,” says Munford. “And the more funders there are in the market the more pricing and competition works in the borrower’s favour. So I do see long term that there’ll be less demand for very short-term high margin funding but I think that’s five years plus away.” There are already rumours of various new entrants into the bridging market including a couple of specialist residential
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