Mortgage finance firm Lendinvest taps three banks for £500m London float
Online property finance marketplace Lendinvest has chosen three banks to lead its planned £500m float on the London Stock Exchange this year.
It is understood Lendinvest, which provides funding for property investors, developers and landlords, has tapped Goldman Sachs and Barclays as joint global coordinators.
Read more: Mortgage finance hub Lendinvest targets £500m London listing
In addition, BNP Paribas has been selected as bookrunner, while advisory firm Lazard has been supporting the firm’s board.
The appointments, first reported by Sky News, mark a significant step towards the firm’s initial public offering (IPO), which is mooted for this year and is expected to value the company at roughly £500m.
The float would come months after the IPO of peer-to-peer lender Funding Circle, which has suffered a sharp decline in its share price since the float.
But Lendinvest has played down comparisons to Funding Circle, saying its lending is secured rather than unsecured and its investors are institutions and high-net-worth-individuals rather than retail investors.
Co-founders Christian Faes and Ian Thomas set up the firm as a conventional mortgage lending business in 2008, before launching the online platform in 2013, focusing on the short-term mortgage market.
Read more: How the arrival of the World Wide Web has changed the mortgage market
A £500m float would net Faes and Thomas, who both have a 36 per cent stake in the company, about £175m each.
Lendinvest declined to comment.