"Silbury Finance (“Silbury”), the development lending firm supported by Oaktree Capital Management, has announced the appointment of Grenville Turner as its Chairman. Grenville, a seasoned professional with a rich 40-year career spanning residential property and finance, will lend his expertise to Founding Partners Gavin Eustace and Matthew Pritchard, steering Silbury towards its robust growth objectives.
Grenville's previous role was the Non-Executive Chairman at Watkin Jones Plc, a developer and manager specialising in residential for rent properties, until last year. His career also showcases extensive leadership in investment and property lending, serving as the Chairman of development lender Titlestone Ltd until its acquisition by Paragon, and presiding over wealth manager Ascot Lloyd / Bellpenny.
He had a successful stint as the Chief Executive of Countrywide from 2007 to 2014, overseeing its fruitful Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 2013. Additionally, he served as a Founding Director of Rightmove and a Non-Executive Director at the property portal, Zoopla.
Since Silbury's inception in January 2021, it has effectively allocated around £490 million of senior finance across 13 schemes in the UK's retirement living and residential sector. The second half of 2022 has been particularly prosperous for Silbury, originating roughly £300 million of new lending. This success was attained by capitalising on the continuous demand from borrowers, whilst traditional and emerging financing options faced setbacks due to legacy book issues or funding cost challenges."
Gavin Eustace, Founding Partner at Silbury Finance, commented:
“Grenville’s track record launching and running a number of blue-chip residential property and finance businesses speaks for itself.
Whilst we are seeing strengthening demand for sustainability-linked, competitively priced senior debt, we are operating against a volatile backdrop, and we look forward to leveraging Grenville’s over 40 years’ experience as we accelerate our growth plans.”
Grenville Turner added:
“The UK mid-ticket residential lending space was ripe for disruption, and Gavin and Matthew had the conviction and experience to launch, and subsequently scale, a product offering that is fully aligned with borrower needs.
This is a rare opportunity to join a dynamic team, running an institutional quality platform in what is a hugely underserved part of the debt market.”