Challenger financial institution Redwood to go public as Rowland engineers R8 tie-up

The outstanding financier Jonathan Rowland is to take the challenger financial institution he co-founded six years in the past onto the London inventory market by a reverse takeover of one other enterprise arrange by his household.

Sky News has learnt that Mr Rowland, who has floated plenty of company automobiles within the City, has orchestrated a deal to mix Redwood Bank, a lender to companies, with R8 Capital Investments, a money shell.

Insiders stated a reverse takeover of R8 by Redwood Bank was anticipated to be introduced on Monday morning.

It is anticipated to hunt within the area of £20m of latest capital from traders as a part of the deal, which is anticipated to be earmarked for the long run development of the financial institution.

R8 was beforehand referred to as Mode, which for a interval traded as a cryptocurrency enterprise however which was successfully wound down earlier this 12 months.

This weekend, City sources stated that Mr Rowland had recognized R8 as the perfect automobile by which to take Redwood Bank public and allow it to amass different lenders and mortgage books to be able to diversify it right into a full-service financial institution.

One analyst stated Mr Rowland’s timing might show opportune amid an anticipated wave of consolidation within the UK banking sector.

Higher rates of interest have improved banks’ profitability, with the Co-operative Bank, Sainsbury’s Bank, Shawbrook and Tesco Bank all having been the topic of hypothesis about their future possession over the last 12 months.

R8 presently has a market valuation of simply over £2m.

Sources stated the reverse takeover by Redwood Bank could be structured as a share-for-share alternate, which might give traders in Redwood Financial Partners a majority stake within the London-listed firm.

Redwood Bank was the primary partnership between the Rowland Family and different well-known traders, together with David Bonderman, the co-founder of TPG, certainly one of America’s largest buyout corporations and a former chairman of Ryanair Holdings.

Redwood and Mode have been initially structured as a part of the identical firm, however have been divested earlier than the financial institution was licensed by regulators in 2017.

Mr Rowland is the son of David ‘Spotty’ Rowland, who has up to now been a serious Conservative Party donor.

The youthful Mr Rowland led the restructuring of Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg, an Icelandic-owned entity which was hit by the banking disaster of 2008, into Banque Havilland, a world personal financial institution.

Neither Mr Rowland nor the businesses he’s looking for to mix may very well be reached for remark.