Allica Bank enters bridging market with Tuscan acquisition

Business bank Allica has acquired bridging lender Tuscan Capital, representing Allica’s first foray into the bridging finance market.

The Tuscan team, based across the UK, will eventually integrate fully into the Allica team, benefitting from access to Allica’s funding base and award-winning distribution network. Allica, which has been steadily expanding its commercial finance offering for its established business customers, will be able to leverage Tuscan’s existing bridging expertise and broker network.

Allica have hired Justin Trowse as Head of Bridging to spearhead its bridging distribution strategy. Justin was previously Director of Structured Property Finance at LendInvest, where he was responsible for origination of high value, complex property transactions across bridging and development finance. Before this, he headed up LendInvest’s bridging finance products. He was also featured in the B&C power list in 2021.

The acquisition by Allica will further extend its commercial finance product offering to include bridging and refurbishment finance, with a focus on semi-commercial and full commercial bridging, alongside Tuscan’s already excellent offering in residential bridging.

Allica is looking to become a leading player in the bridging finance market, emulating its success in both commercial mortgages and asset finance. Since launching to market in March 2020, it has lent over £2 billion to established businesses, won numerous awards, and was also named the fastest-growing company in the UK in The Sunday Times 100 earlier this year.

Tuscan Capital was founded in 2018 by Colin Sanders, who was previously CEO of bridging and development lender Omni Capital/Fortwell Capital, and Ed Parsons, who also served as Tuscan’s Chief Financial Officer. Tuscan quickly saw success, being named Best Newcomer at the Bridging & Commercial Awards in 2019, and developing a reputation for service and speed.

Commenting on the acquisition, Colin said, “Ed and I set up Tuscan with a vision to transform what we saw as a broken bridging market, with a specific focus on bringing back speed and decisiveness to the decision-making process. Allica’s no-nonsense approach to banking shows they share this vision with us.

“This is a really positive development for the Tuscan team, our intermediary partners, and the wider SME community, and we look forward to the proposition enhancements that will undoubtedly follow today’s news. By becoming part of this award-winning bank, we will be able to accelerate the fantastic work our team has already done, and make an even greater difference to the market.”

“Tuscan’s commitment to service, and in particular their focus on speed and transparency for their broker partners and customers, meant the synergies with Allica’s values were clear.

“Commercial bridging is an important but underserved part of the lending market. That’s why we believe bringing together Tuscan’s expertise and existing relationships with Allica’s resources and network is a winning combination for the market.

“We look forward to sharing more about how we’ll be developing our bridging proposition in the coming weeks.”