Feeney promoted as Lloyds unveils real estate shake up

Lloyds Banking Group is shaking up its real estate lending operation and has appointed John Feeney to lead an expansion of the bank’s property business.

Lloyds told staff this morning that it is to streamline two of the three property divisions at the bank.

The change will see Feeney take over responsibility for all real estate clients with a debt requirement of over £10m and the corporate real estate global corporates team, which focuses on deals of £50m-£200m, and the mid markets team, which focuses on deals of £10m-£50m, combined. The support for SME businesses within the real estate sector will continue unchanged and is led by Mark Ellis.

The bank said that “by bringing together the two parts into one team, clients will benefit from a single, consistent service and the strong capabilities the team will be able to offer from client relationship, structuring and distribution perspective”.

John Feeney, currently managing director, global corporate real estate, will continue to report to Clare Francis, managing director for global corporates. Martin Green, previously the managing director heading mid market property lending will report to Feeney and “will form a pivotal part of Feeney’s leadership team upon the merger of the two teams”.

The aim is not to cut back on lending but to shape the bank to be a force in real estate lending once again, after the years of deleveraging since the financial crisis. There will be no redundancies as a result of the changes.

The restructuring was instigated by Andrew Bester, Lloyds’ chief executive of commercial banking who reports directly to the bank’s chief executive Antonio Horta Osorio.

Tim Hinton, managing director of SME and mid markets commercial banking, is said to have worked on the restructuring with Bester. Both men previously worked at Standard Chartered Bank.

One source said: “Bester and Hinton are the right people to get the bank going again. They need to crack on, otherwise the bank will go backwards; they need to behave more like big boys”.

Feeney said: “Our support for and commitment to the commercial real estate sector is demonstrated by our strong lending in recent years and through our role in helping our clients to access appropriate debt solutions. As our clients increasingly seek a broad range of funding solutions, bringing together our mid market and global corporates teams will enable us to provide them with the most appropriate solutions to fulfil their growth strategies.”

Real Estate Capital revealed this morning that Richard Dakin, the Lloyds executive who led the bank’s five-year real estate deleveraging push, is to leave the bank in November in a clear signal that the bank’s work in reshaping its bad book is all but complete.