Aquilam Capital

Ex-Shawbrook duo launch Aquilam Capital




Two structured finance professionals have founded new business lender Aquilam Capital.

Kieran McSweeney (pictured above, left) and Marc Sefton (right) are officially launching Aquilam Capital this week, where the lender will focus on investing and lending into companies in the speciality finance sector.

These will include businesses in the consumer and SME finance, leasing and mortgage markets with Aquilam Capital offering both debt and equity solutions.

Aquilam Capital expects to complete six to eight quality transactions each year and will consider deals of up to £25m, although the typical range is likely to be around £2m-10m.

Between them, Kieran and Marc have over 30 years of experience and have worked for lenders such as Barclays Capital, Morgan Stanley, RBS and Shawbrook.

While at Shawbrook, the pair headed up a new division delivering asset-backed finance solutions to consumer and SME finance businesses.

“We recognised the need for an investment firm which can provide exciting, entrepreneurial businesses with the right type of funding, but one which will also be a business partner; providing hands-on help, challenge and support where it is of greatest value,” said Marc.

Kieran and Marc will be joined by Jamie Constable and Steve Curtis.

Jamie is the founder of Rcapital and has acquired more than 50 businesses, while Steve has run nearly 20 companies either as CEO or chairman.

Aquilam’s investment decisions will be based on a thorough assessment process for each deal, including detailed analysis of the lifecycle of the assets being funded, benchmarking compliance processes and philosophy against regulatory standards.

The lender will help businesses develop and grow over the medium to long term as well as support management teams on all aspects of their business.

Kieran added: “We are combining exceptional deal transaction experience with corporate finance and operational expertise to create an offer which is unique in this market.”

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