22nd September 2021

• £15m initial investment provided by award winning, listed alternative investment manager Foresight Group
• Investment aimed at supporting real estate developers across the Channel Islands
• Expands Reto Finance’s product offering, adding flexible real estate development finance to its traditional bridging product

Channel Islands multi-product lender Reto Finance (the “Company”) has announced a £15 million investment from award winning listed alternative investment manager, Foresight Group.

Reto Finance was launched in 2019 following a buy-out from Shawbrook International by Quilam Capital and has since served hundreds of consumer and SME borrowers across the Channel Islands. Reto Finance is led by its CEO Adam Dawson who spent seven years building and managing a specialist lending business for an established bank, after working for ten years as a management consultant. Under Quilam Capital and Adam’s leadership, Reto Finance is increasingly becoming the “go to” specialist lender on the Channel Islands offering a wider breadth of products to SME’s and consumers than many of its rivals. The new investment will support the launch of a real estate development finance product and will allow the Company to offer increased flexibility on its existing real estate bridging product.

Foresight Group, fast becoming known as an alternative finance provider to lending businesses, structured a senior debt facility tailored to suit the flexibility required by the Company’s new product.  Investment into lenders such as Reto Finance aligns with Foresight’s regional approach to investing, offering support to local economies and businesses that are unable to access traditional forms of financing. With this investment, Foresight has now committed over £165 million of capital to the alternative lending sector.

Oliver Bates, Foresight Private Debt Manager added;

“We are excited to support the growth of Reto Finance and, in turn, make an impact on the real estate market across the Channel Islands. With this partnership, we build on a previous investment from Quilam Capital who are celebrated investors in the alternative lending space.”

The property market in the Channel Islands has been well documented in recent months. 

In June of this year, Jersey’s parliament voted against declaring a housing crisis on the island despite clear evidence of demand for real estate far-outweighing supply. Reports indicate there are six or seven parties on average seeking any one rental property, highlighting the need for a substantial increase in the supply of new housing.

Reto, Spanish for “challenge”, was keen to develop a new product to support local property developers and consequently help to address the housing shortage. Traditionally more focused upon bridging, Reto are thrilled to add a flexible development product to their offering. 

Commenting on the investment, Reto CEO Adam Dawson said;

“This additional line of liquidity allows us to broaden our Real Estate offering meaning that we can continue to support local property developers across the Channel Islands with tailored funding solutions. This deal allows us to further expand our real estate offering with a market leading development finance product.

We look forward to playing a part in supporting the growth of the property markets in both Jersey and Guernsey.