Shawbrook to buy specialist lender ThinCats

(Sharecast News) - Shawbrook said on Tuesday that it has agreed to buy specialist lender ThinCats for an undisclosed sum. Shawbrook said the deal represents a strategic investment in accelerating the growth of its existing presence in the specialist SME lending market, "underlining the group's commitment to supporting UK SMEs with highly tailored finance facilities and relationship-led service".

It noted that ThinCats has an established market position, proven origination capabilities and a technology-enabled business model that is strategically aligned to Shawbrook's.

On completion, the ThinCats brand will operate as part of Shawbrook's portfolio of brands, "continuing to support owner-managed and sponsor-backed businesses with funding for event-driven needs".

The acquisition will include a projected loan book of around £0.7bn with corresponding risk-weighted assets of approximately £0.6bn.

Shawbrook said the deal is expected to be earnings per share accretive in the first full financial year post completion, delivering a "highly attractive" return on invested capital.

Shawbrook chief executive Marcelino Castrillo, said: "ThinCats is a leading UK FinTech with an excellent track record for delivering bespoke funding to growth-focused SMEs, whose owners, management teams and sponsors value speed, flexibility and certainty.

"ThinCats' approach is aligned to our own strategy of leveraging technology, credit excellence and an entrepreneurial culture to deliver a premium proposition to established UK SMEs.

"This acquisition will serve to further scale-up and deepen our presence in the very large and growing SME market. As part of the Shawbrook Group, the ThinCats proposition will benefit from our platform, including distribution channels, investment and funding structure, which will allow us to scale the brand more efficiently and serve even more UK SMEs with highly tailored funding solutions."