Indiabulls sells 10% stake in Britain’s OakNorth Bank to GIC for $118 mn

Indiabulls sells 10% stake in Britain’s OakNorth Bank to GIC for $118 mn

By Reuters

  • 03 Nov 2017
Credit: Reuters

Singaporean sovereign investor GIC will take a 10 percent stake in British specialist bank OakNorth for 90 million pounds, OakNorth said on Friday.

The bank, which lends to businesses and property developers, said GIC has signed a deal to buy the stake from Indian conglomerate Indiabulls.

It follows on the heels of a 154 million pound investment in OakNorth last month from investors Coltrane, Toscafund and The Clermont Group.

OakNorth said GIC’s investment will assist OakNorth’s plans to expand its global business via the launch of its ‘fintech’ platform ACORN machine, which is designed to use data collection and processing to assist lending decisions.

Founded in 2015 by entrepreneurs Rishi Khosla and Joel Perlman, OakNorth is one of a new breed of British lenders launched after the financial crisis in 2008 when the Bank of England lowered the capital requirements to set up new banks.

Britain’s vote to leave the European Union has been a boon to some small lenders like OakNorth in throwing up more lending opportunities, Khosla told Reuters last year.