Capitalflow, Ireland’s fastest-growing non-bank business lender, today announces it has completed the acquisition of a commercial property loan book previously owned by Lunar Commercial Mortgages DAC. The purchase represents a Commercial Loan Portfolio of €122m, made up of borrowers with investment properties across residential, leisure, and commercial assets.
Pepper Finance Corporation (Ireland) DAC trading as Pepper Money has been retained as legal title holder, servicer, and will continue to manage all customer relationships.
Acquired in late 2021 by Dutch digital bank, bunq, the deal strengthens Capitalflow’s growth plans, as it sets out to double its loan portfolio by 2025 and grow its team by 50% with the creation of 40 new roles by 2026.
Ronan Horgan, CEO of Capitalflow describes the acquisition: “This is a unique opportunity to purchase a well-managed strong-performing Commercial Property loan portfolio. It is our intention to grow the relationships with these customers through Pepper Money and to leverage off their presence in the market to develop new origination channels. This acquisition further strengthens Capitalflow’s presence in the Commercial Lending market.”
With direct access to bank funding through its parent company bunq’s deposits, Capitalflow has been able to expand, becoming the fastest growing non-bank lender in the Irish market with its portfolio reaching €750m at the end of 2023. Indeed, bunq recently launched a market leading savings interest rate in the Irish market of 2.46%, leading to a surge in deposits by Irish customers of a million euros per day.
Ronan Horgan comments: “2024 presents an excellent opportunity for Capitalflow to continue to grow. Access to competitive funding from our parent, bunq, gives us far greater certainty and flexibility than our competitors while the stabilisation of inflation and the forecasted reduction in interest rates gives our customers greater confidence to invest in their businesses. We have ambitious plans to grow our presence in the market and look after our business customers. Last year we provided loans of €360m and we intend to grow this to €600m per annum by 2026.”
Capitalflow generated revenue of €57m in 2023 and this is set to grow to €100m by the end 2026. The company has offices in Dublin at Northwood, Santry, and Baggot Street, as well as a nationwide team of lenders based around the country.
It will continue to grow organically in its traditional sectors like Commercial Property, Transport, Construction and Retail over the coming years and is keen to pursue further acquisitions should the right opportunities arise.
Capitalflow also partnered with the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) in 2023 and is actively looking to allocate €75m to SMEs under the Government Ukraine Credit Guarantee scheme.
