Gatehouse lends on Jersey office

Gatehouse Bank has issued a £10m loan to Apache Capital Partners to fund its purchase of an office building in St Helier, Jersey.

The senior loan reflects a 57% loan-to-value on the £17.5m asking price. The 49,115 sq ft building at 18-22 Grenville Street is fully occupied by law firm Mourant Ozannes.

The Shariah-compliant investment bank established a lending division in November last year as it seeks to take advantage of demand for Islamic finance, poaching Natale Giostra, the former head of UK & EMEA debt advisory at CBRE to head the team. In June it recruited Nick Westoby from RBS, Arnaud Schaller from Credit Agricole and Eduardo Martin from Banco Popular Espanol.

Giostra said: “[Apache was] our first sponsor to specifically require Shariah-compliant finance. This deal highlights the success and competitiveness of the recently formed team and puts us in a strong position for the year ahead.”

Apache Capital Partners is a niche real estate and private equity investment management firm that was established in 2008 and specialises in investing capital from the Middle East into the UK.

John Dunkerley, chief executive of Apache added: “Gatehouse have demonstrated their understanding of Shariah compliant finance, structures and the nature of our Middle Eastern investors. Apache Capital has a substantial investor base and we are actively building our Shariah complaint high income strategy. We look forward to building our relationship with Gatehouse Bank in the future.”

Gatehouse offers senior finance with minimum ticket size of £5m up to £100m in the UK, France, Germany, Benelux, Spain and Italy. It lends across all the main sectors but is prohibited from using pubs, casinos or banks as collateral.

It has completed three lending deals thus far since the team was established. In June it provided £11.7m for a luxury residential-led development in Fitzrovia for Princeton Property Partners and Resolution Property. It followed this up earlier this month with a £22.5m loan to Al Dau Development to finance its purchase of the Holiday Inn London West in North Acton.