Lloyds appoints MacKenzie to lead UK regional CRE lending

Lloyds Bank has appointed a new head of UK regions for its commercial real estate unit.

Allan MacKenzie, who has worked within Lloyds Banking Group for more than 30 years, has joined from the bank’s listed clients team where he was a relationship director. He will relocate from London to Manchester and will be responsible for all UK regions.

As part of the new role, MacKenzie will oversee the relationship teams based in the bank’s Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester offices that provide funding to clients with assets in excess of £25 million.

In 2015, MacKenzie led the £277 million refinancing of MediaCityUK alongside Citi, which followed Legal & General’s purchase of a 50 percent stake in the development from Peel.

“Allan’s appointment is a real statement of our intent. His blend of experience operating within regional markets alongside some of the biggest players in real estate make him ideally placed to spearhead our growth,” said John Feeney, managing director and global head of commercial real estate for Lloyds Bank.

“This is an exciting time for the UK’s key regional cities. They are vibrant with investment and development activity continuing to rise and we see many significant opportunities to provide funding support,” MacKenzie added.

Lloyds’ CRE teams wrote £9 billion of new loans during 2015. The total was up on £7.4 billion written in 2014, although in 2015 the bank’s housebuilder clients were moved to another part of the bank making like-for-like comparisons with 2014’s figure difficult.

As well as the MediaCityUK refinancing, regional UK deals completed in 2015 included a £147.5 million whole loan to finance BMO Real Estate Partners’ acquisition of Parkgate retail park in South Yorkshire. The bank also provided £62 million to fund Allied London’s 300,000 square foot office development at Number One Spinningfields in Manchester.