Puma Property Finance Limited secures £200m institutional funding commitment

Puma Investments has secured a new funding line of up to £200 million from funds advised by RoundShield Partners LLP (“RoundShield”) and affiliates for deployment in its property finance division, Puma Property Finance Limited.

Puma Property Finance Limited arranges first charge secured lending to UK property developers, funding projects across the UK with loans of between £5 million and £35 million. As well as backing professional developers of residential schemes, it has significant experience in specialist sectors, including hotels and leisure, retirement living, care homes and supported living units.

The property finance division offers three core loan products: stretch senior development loans; pre-development bridge finance for site acquisition; and post-development exit finance.

Puma Investments advises Puma Heritage plc on the deployment of the funds it raises from private client investors into UK development loans. The addition of this institutional commitment from RoundShield enables the property finance division to continue to respond to the significant demand it is seeing for development finance on competitive terms and will enable the business to invest in its infrastructure, including its high-quality, experienced lending team.

For its role in originating, executing and managing loans Puma Property Finance Limited will receive management and transactional related fees on loans executed over a four-year period. As part of the arrangements, the progressive deployment of the funding line will entitle RoundShield to acquire a stake of up to 25%. In addition, RoundShield may be entitled to additional payments on exit, dependent on the returns achieved by it during the life of the transaction. Driss Benkirane and Max Leeb, Managing Partner and Director of RoundShield respectively, will join the board of Puma Property Finance Ltd.

Commenting on the new funding line, David Kaye, CEO of Puma Property Finance, said:

“We are delighted to have secured a significant funding line for our property finance activities. There are many high-quality real estate opportunities across the UK unable to access financing from traditional sources. This new partnership with the excellent team at RoundShield will enable us to continue to scale-up our activities with experienced developers to deliver both residential schemes and projects in specialist sectors including hotels, retirement living, student accommodation and care homes.”