Blackstone and TPG buy Kensington from Investec for £180m

Investec announced its intention to sell Kensington, which it acquired for £283m back in 2007, last February. The sale forms part of the listed parent’s strategy to restructure its business and divest non-core assets. 

The acquisition was made by the Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and TPG Special Situations Partners vehicles, and is subject to regulatory approval.

The company will look to diversify its product offering by providing additional speciality finance products following the transaction. Kensington also appointed Ian Henderson, formerly chief executive of specialist bank Shawbrook, as the company's new chief executive. Keith Street will continue to lead the mortgage business for the company.

The GPs stated they were attracted to the deal by the high profile of the Kensington brand, its extensive portfolio of mortgages and the company’s management team.

Fenchurch Advisory Partners managed the sales process for Investec.

Company
Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Skipton, North Yorkshire, Kensington is an intermediary-only lender of buy-to-let mortgages. The company has 140 employees and 30,000 customers. In the year to March, Kensington had gross assets of £3.7bn and a net asset value of £165m.

People
David Blitzer is head of Blackstone Tactical Opportunities. Michael Muscolino is managing director of TPG’s Special Situations Partners. Ian Henderson is chief executive of Kensington.

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• Topics
• UK / Ireland
• Financials
• Buyouts
• United Kingdom
• Blackstone Group
• TPG