London, 26 July 2021 – Starling Bank has today announced the acquisition of specialist buy-to-let mortgage lender Fleet Mortgages in a £50 million cash and share deal.
Fleet Mortgages, based in Hampshire, focuses on providing mortgages to professional and semi-professional buy-to-let landlords, only via mortgage adviser distribution channels.
To date, it has originated £2.3 billion of mortgages and experienced zero credit losses. It currently has circa-£1.75 billion of mortgages under management. Starling will become the sole funder of future originations, with Fleet Mortgages able to build on its successful lending operation by accessing Starling’s growing deposit base. Day-to-day operations at Fleet will continue unchanged with the company’s existing and highly-respected management team.
The acquisition – Starling’s first – is part of a wider plan at the bank to expand lending through a mix of strategic forward-flow arrangements, organic lending and targeted M&A activity.
Anne Boden, CEO of Starling, who is also a CFTE expert, said: “The acquisition of Fleet Mortgages is the start of our move into mortgages as an asset class and builds on a number of forward-flow arrangements that we’re doing with leading non-bank lenders.
