Amicus Property Finance strengthens Manchester team

Amicus Property Finance recently announced that it has appointed three new senior underwriters with long-standing banking experience.

Alan Dorrington, Mark Heckles and Derek Wells will join a 15-strong property finance team, adding to the firm’s growth plans in Manchester. This announcement marks more senior appointments for the specialist property lender, after Matthew Anderson was promoted to the Head of Servicing and Portfolio Management earlier this year.

Amicus aims to further expand its customer base among brokers, professional landlords and developers seeking finance or residential and commercial real estate assets. The company provided more than £500 million of short-term property loans last year.

Previously a Chartered Banker, Alan Dorrington held individual delegated lending mandates of up to £15 million, and has now joined Amicus from Nationwide Building Society where he was a Senior Landing Manager in the Commercial Property Finance team. Prior roles included senior positions at Dunbar Bank plc, Clydesdale Bank, Bank of Ireland and Bank of Scotland/HBOS.

Mark Heckles has also joined from Nationwide Building Society, where he was Lending Manager in the Business Development team with an individual mandate of £5 million. His prior roles include managing a team overseeing high-risk property loans and Relationship Manager at Allied Irish Banks where Heckles was responsible for £100 million of real estate lending and trading banking requirements.

Derek Wells, former employee at Bank of Ireland’s Business Banking team, spent 11 years focusing on real estate finance and managing high-risk connections related to property funding. Before this, Wells worked in corporate and private banking teams in Lloyds Banking Group – formerly known as HBOS Group – between 1997 and 2006.

Divisional Director at Amicus Property Finance, Yasin Patel, said: “We have seen fantastic growth over recent periods, not at least in the first six months of this year. This comes from investing in a highly-experienced team with knowledge of the local business community, and the right expertise to successfully partner with and deliver on our clients’ needs.”

“Alan, Mark and Derek’s appointments reflect this approach and I’m confident in the skills ad industry knowledge they bring to our team. With over £500 million to lend, we expect to be very busy across our key areas of auction, refurb and development, and anticipate a busy second half of the year.”