Pollen Street channels 90pc of finance outside of London
Close to 90 per cent of financing from Pollen Street Capital was provided outside of London in 2021, in support of regional economies and the levelling up agenda.
The investment manager, which describes itself as “purpose-led”, revealed the figure in its environmental, social and governance (ESG) report for 2021. It said its credit strategy had sought to fund green alternatives for homes and transport, accelerate financial inclusion by investing in specialist lenders and to drive economic growth by investing in businesses across the UK that support the levelling up agenda.
Around 86 per cent of its consumer lending took was provided outside of London in 2021, reaching 93 per cent for real estate finance and 82 per cent for SME financing.
“There are 5.6 million SMEs in the UK, supporting employment for nearly 13 million people,” said Ethan Saggu, an investment director at Pollen Street Capital. “It’s empowering to support this sector’s growth ambitions with access to finance.”
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Pollen Street’s credit partners include real estate and bridging lenders, which support communities in meeting the housing gap, adopt sustainable living standards and aim to improve the environmental impact of property. With this is mind, Pollen Street said it had contributed towards building more than 3,000 affordable homes since January 2021 and had saved householders around 18,000 tonnes of carbon per annum.
Elsewhere, the firm reported progress across its private equity business with 26 per cent of women in private equity executive leadership roles and a six per cent fall in the average gender pay gap to 29 per cent across its portfolio.
It also reported that 80 per cent of its portfolio had ESG policies in place at the end of 2021, a figure that had increased to 100 per cent at the end of June 2022.
The firm has completed its goal of becoming carbon neutral and reduced its carbon footprint by 53 per cent over the course of 2021.
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Back in February, Honeycomb Investment Trust announced its plans to acquire Pollen Street Capital, with the aim of creating a combined group with assets under management of up to £5bn over the next few years.
This will see London-listed Honeycomb acquire Pollen Street in an all-share deal that values the investment manager at £285m. Pollen Street’s shareholders will receive new company shares equivalent to 45.5 per cent of the enlarged company.
Read more: Honeycomb to sweeten value with share buybacks