New York-based investment firm Avenue Capital Group has agreed to acquire the entire stake of Pollen Street Capital in Castlehaven Finance, an Irish lending platform, for €250m (£227m).
The transaction will result in Pollen Street Capital exiting its investment in Castlehaven Finance, which it has held through its credit lending arms, P2P Global Investments and Honeycomb Investment Trust.
Until date, Castlehaven Finance is claimed to have financed more than €580m (£527m) to developers since its inception in 2014.
Pollen Street Capital partnered with Castlehaven in 2016 and since then, Pollen Street has financed the lender more than €385m (£350m). The financing support from London-based equity firm has helped Castlehaven to grow into one of the top development and bridging finance lenders in Ireland.
The lender is also claimed to be on the verge of completing more than €300m (£272m) in lending this year, with major projects such as a residential development of 74 new homes at Chapel Road in Delganey for Patrick Durkan’s development entity DRES and a 149 bedroom hotel on James Street for The Dublin Loft company owned by Mark, Andrew and Kelly Cosgrave.
Castlehaven Finace partner Will Aylmer said: “We thank Pollen Street Capital for their partnership and support over the last three years.
“The new partnership with Avenue allows us to continue to scale up. We’ll be increasing volume and providing new opportunities to current clients, along with developers we’ve never worked with before.”
Avenue Capital’s acquisition of Castlehaven could support its growth further
Avenue Capital will acquire the existing Castlehaven Finance Portfolio from Pollen Street Capital and will provide future funding lines to supporting the platform to grow further.
Pollen Street Capital managing partner Lindsey McMurray said: “We have had a successful relationship with Castlehaven Finance, provided them with a significant amount of financing and have been delighted with the development of the business since the beginning of our partnership in 2016.
“We are happy to have contributed to the Company’s growth and wish the team every continued success.”
