Ashen Capital makes first corporate investment into Sibner Investment Management
16th January 2025
Ashen Capital Ltd (“Ashen”), the private real estate investment vehicle established by senior industry investors Alex Price and Steven Wright in September 2024, announces its first corporate investment into Sibner Investment Management Ltd (“Sibner IM”).
Sibner IM is a subsidiary of Sibner Group, a substantial privately owned real estate owner, based in south-west London and run by Wilfrid van Geest. Sibner Group has a long track record of residential property ownership and is a leader in lending senior, secured loans to SME housebuilders across the UK. To date it has been entirely funded by its shareholders.
Sibner IM has been established by Sibner Group to lever its excellent track record of senior debt origination and servicing in order to raise and manage third party capital into a fund structure that will then lend to SME housebuilders.
Ashen is acquiring up to 20% of Sibner IM and is supporting the planned residential development debt fund (“The Fund”) by providing non-executive advice and governance. The Fund, which will focus on senior ranking development and bridging loans, is targeting high net worth investors, wealth managers and family offices and will seek to deliver a net return of over 12% pa. It is expected to launch in Q1 2025 and will benefit from a £20m initial seed commitment from Sibner Group and Ashen.
Chief Executive of Ashen, Alex Price, commented that “Ashen’s mission is to help grow smaller property businesses by providing three separate strands of support: management expertise, co-investment and access to an institutional investor base. The investment into Sibner IM does this whilst also allowing us to partner with an exceptional team.” He added “This platform gives a superior risk adjusted way to access the UK residential sector whilst also helping to contribute to solving the UKs chronic housing shortage”.
Managing Director of Sibner Group, Wilfrid van Geest, added that “Ashen’s involvement into Sibner IM is an important step as we continue to grow and improve our offering to clients. They bring a wealth of investment management, real estate and lending experience, that will help us give third parties access to the outstanding performance we have achieved ourselves over the last five years”.
Contact:
PR Agency:
Omnia Partners: Victoria Sisson 07941 294872
Management
Alex Price: 07979 524222 alex.price@ashencapital.com
Steven Wright: 07824 328262. Steven.wright@ashencapital.com
Wilf Van Geest: 07399 002056. wilfrid.vangeest@sibner.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
Ashen Capital:
Senior industry investors Alex Price and Steven Wright launched Ashen Capital Ltd (“Ashen”) in September 2024. Ashen has been set up to bring private equity into the property sector, predominately by providing capital and management support to smaller U.K. asset management and/or development companies, a segment that Ashen believes is underserved. It will also seek to fund the purchase of property assets, on a selective basis, where value can be added through active management.
Alex Price and Steven Wright were former colleagues at Fiera Real Estate (UK) (formerly Palmer Capital Partners) where they worked together for 15 years as CEO and Head of Corporate Investments respectively. In that time, they supported the growth of over a dozen UK property development companies, such as Wrenbridge Land and Packaged Living. They invested in over 150 property transactions, both directly and through the investee property development companies. They also raised and deployed over £1.5bn of equity into U.K. property whilst at Palmer Capital / Fiera Real Estate UK. Alex led the sale of Palmer Capital to Fiera Capital in 2019, and both left the business in 2022 / 2023, Alex to study a master’s degree at Kings College London and Steven to work at Legal & General Capital.
Ashen has been seeded with a substantial initial investment from the management team as well as backing from a network of High-Net-Worth Investors, who will invest alongside Ashen on selected opportunities.
Sibner Group:
Sibner Group was founded by siblings Tom Mackintosh, George Mackintosh, Mollie O’Gorman and Wilfrid van Geest out of an unincorporated family company which was originally established in the 1950s. Sibner operates a rental portfolio alongside property development and provision of development and bridging finance to SMEs, a section of the market into which Sibner has made inroads over the last 6 years thanks to its quick, simple and transparent approach to property finance and its focus on customer service and value-add products. Sibner’s focus on embedding technology in its operations allows for efficient underwriting and effective risk management.
Wilfrid van Geest has been Managing Director of Sibner Group since its inception and has led the team since then, establishing first lettings and property management, before expanding the company’s business to include its finance and technology arms. Tom, George and Mollie have a wealth of experience in the commercial, infrastructure and legal professions particularly and are actively involved as non-executive directors of the Sibner Group. Sibner’s proposed fund is looking to work with other Family Offices, HNWIs and Wealth Managers, allowing them to invest alongside Sibner Group and the executive team, and to grow Sibner’s provision of senior secured bridging and development loans to SME developers and property owners in the UK. The fund will target 12%+ with quarterly income of 1.75% and quarterly redemption and subscriptions (after an initial lock-in).
