Financial Sponsors

A national team of experienced professionals offering dedicated coverage to support mid-market private equity firms and management teams across the UK.

Products and services

  • Private Equity led majority/minority buy-outs
  • Capital to grow organically/make acquisitions
  • Refinancings and recapitalisations
  • Super Senior facilities (drawn debt and revolving credit lines)
  • Bilateral or multi-bank deals
financial sponsors

We’re an active market participant, lending across all sectors, from business services and healthcare to manufacturing and technology, media and telecoms (TMT).

Our Financial Sponsors team provides cash flow lending solutions in support of private equity backed businesses and management teams. We specialise in Event Driven Finance in support of management buy outs, acquisitions, buy and builds, refinancings, recapitalisations and partial exits. We’ll work with you to provide a tailored and flexible solution to suit your business needs.

Team structure

Our UK team is located across eight offices in London, Bristol, Reading, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and has a diverse background, including corporate finance, credit risk, and debt advisory.

Available to

Private equity backed, UK headquartered businesses operating across all sectors, with minimum earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) of £2.5 million.

All lending is subject to status and our lending criteria. The right to decline any application is reserved.

Recent transactions

The Clearway Group, a vacant property services business received a £23 million funding package from BGF and Santander to support its organic and acquisitive growth strategy.

The funding was initially being used to make two acquisitions – Cerberus Security and Monitoring...

Read more
clearway
Choice Care Group
Healthcare

Santander Financial Sponsors team provided senior debt facilities to support existing client, Choice Care Group, in its buyout by iCON Infrastructure.

We’ve had a longstanding relationship with the company since 2013, having previously supported their buyout by Caledonia...

Read more
choice care

Over the years, ASK4 has built strong relationships with developers and today, the business has grown to become the largest player in its respective market.

ASK4 believes the success of the business is due to its highly differentiated proposition, focus on customer service...

Read more
ask4
 

See all client stories

Meet the team

Andrew Clayton

Andrew Clayton

Head of Financial Sponsors
Email address: 
andrew.clayton2@santander.co.uk

Andrew Clayton is National Head of Financial Sponsors at Santander, where he's responsible for leading a team across the UK working with management teams and private equity investors, providing leveraged debt financing solutions in the mid-market space. He has over 20 years of experience in working with and supporting mid-market businesses. Before joining Santander he was Regional Head of Structured Finance for the South and Midlands at RBS where he led many transactions covering a wider range of sectors. Andrew's also worked in Mezzanine Finance with NatWest and Corporate Finance as part of an independent London based boutique.

Colin Robertson

Colin Robertson

Credit Structuring
Email address: 
colin.robertson@santander.co.uk

Colin joined the Financial Sponsors team in early 2017. Prior to this, he spent c35 years at RBS, with the most recent 13 years spent in that organisation’s mid-market leveraged finance business. His Credit Structuring role involves a number of strategic initiatives aimed at further enhancing Santander’s capability in the Lev Fin market, as well as bringing his experience to bear to help shape new transactions.

Gerry Davies

Gerry Davies

Director
Email address: 
gerry.davies@santander.co.uk

Gerry is a Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in 2014. Prior to this, he spent six years at BDO working in the Transaction Services team in London. He holds a first class degree in Accounting and Finance from Newcastle University and qualified as a Chartered Certified Accountant whilst at BDO.

Nick Howard

Nick Howard

Director
Email address: 
nick.howard@santander.co.uk

Nick is a Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in 2014. Before this, he spent eight years at Investec as a CLO Portfolio Manager managing €1.5 billion of assets under management and also worked as an analyst focusing on large-cap European LBOs with a sector focus on TMT. He holds a degree in Biomedical Science from Kingston University.

Neil Patel

Neil Patel

Director
Email address: 
neil.patel@santander.co.uk

Neil is a Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in 2015. He has over 10 years leveraged experience, working prior to Santander at GE Capital and Lloyds Banking Group. He holds a degree in Accounting and Finance from Leeds University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant from his time at KPMG.

Nick Holman

Nick Holman

Director
Email address: 
nick.holman@santander.co.uk

Nick is a Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in 2013. Prior to this, he spent nine years working at Lloyds Banking Group in both the Acquisition Finance and Capital Markets teams. He holds a Masters degree in International Banking and Finance from the University of Southampton.

Adrian Rowles

Adrian Rowles

Director
Email address: 
adrian.rowles@santander.co.uk

Adrian is a Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in 2010. Before this, he spent seven years at RBS in the Corporate & Structured Finance team working on a range of financial sponsor and corporate M&A transactions in Leeds and Birmingham. He holds degrees in Accounting & Economics from De Montfort University and Financial Services (ACIB) from the University of Manchester.

Chris Thomas

Chris Thomas

Director
Email address: 
chris.thomas@santander.co.uk

Chris is a Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in 2010. Prior to this, he spent 16 years at RBS, the last nine of which were with RBS Structured Finance. He holds a degree in Management Science from University of Wales, Swansea and is an Associate Member of Corporate Treasurers.

Saran Lall

Saran Lall

Associate Director
Email address: 
saranjit.lall@santander.co.uk

Saran is an Associate Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in 2017. She has over seven years of leveraged and event-driven corporate finance experience having previously worked at Lloyds and RBS in their Strategic Finance and Structured Finance teams. Saran holds a BA Honours Degree in Economics.

Saul Proctor

Saul Proctor

Director
Email address: 
saul.proctor@santander.co.uk

Saul is a Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in early 2017. Prior to this, he spent nine years at RBS, predominantly in the Mid-market Leverage Finance team, delivering a number of Sponsor backed transactions. He holds a degree in Economics, Banking and Finance from Cardiff University.

mark challis

Mark Challis

Director
Email address: 
mark.challis@santander.co.uk

Mark is a Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in 2018. Prior to this he spent seven years at RBS in the Structured Finance team working on a range of mid-market Financial Sponsor transactions. He holds a Business Economics degree and is a Chartered Accountant having spent nine years at Grant Thornton and Ernst & Young in both Audit and Transaction Support roles.

Rhys Morgan

Rhys Morgan

Associate Director
Email address: 
rhys.morgan@santander.co.uk

Rhys joined Santander in 2017 having spent two years at RBS Leveraged Finance with an additional four years Corporate Finance experience across M&A and Debt Advisory Roles at KPMG and a leading mid-market boutique. He holds a degree in Accounting and Financial Management from Loughborough University Business School and qualified as a Chartered Accountant whilst at KPMG.

raphelle

Raphaelle Amsili

Associate
Email address: 
raphaelle.amsili@santander.co.uk

Raph is an Associate within the Financial Sponsors team. She joined the team in 2018 after interning with Santander for one year, having previously completed a rotation in Foreign Exchange and Interest Rate Sales. Raph holds a first class honours degree in Finance from Durham University.

Roddy Kilpatrick

Roddy Kilpatrick

Director (Glasgow)
Email address: 
roddy.kilpatrick@santander.co.uk

Roddy joined Santander in 2013 with more than 15 years' corporate finance experience, including BDO and EY. He spent eight years at Clydesdale Bank, playing a major role in the creation and growth of a successful acquisition finance team in North West England. Roddy is focused on mid-market financial sponsor and corporate M&A transactions, as well as the provision of growth capital funding for fast growing SMEs in Scotland. He is a chartered accountant with a degree in Scots Law and a Diploma in Russian from Glasgow University.

Richard Mathison

Richard Mathison

Director (Edinburgh)
Email address: 
richard.mathison@santander.co.uk

Richard is a Director within the Structured Finance team who joined Santander in 2014. He qualified as a CA with Deloitte in 2005, and has 12 years’ subsequent corporate finance, recovery and business advisory experience across roles within EY, Bank of Scotland and overseas. Richard is focused on mid-market financial sponsor and corporate M&A transactions, as well as the provision of growth capital funding for fast growing SMEs in Scotland and Northern Ireland. He holds a Masters Degree in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh.

kamil

Kamil Kapasi

Associate Director
Email address: 
Kamil.Kapasi@santander.co.uk

Kamil is an Associate Director within the Financial Sponsors team having joined Santander in April 2018. Before joining the team, Kamil spent 6 months working within Structured Finance Portfolio Management and prior to this, he spent 3 years working at RBS within the Leverage Finance Credit team primarily supporting mid-market sponsor transactions. He holds an Economics degree from the University of Loughborough.

chris handley

Chris Handley

Graduate
Email address: 
christopher.handley@santander.co.uk

Chris is on a Graduate rotation within the Financial Sponsors team. Previous rotations at Santander include a coverage role within the Corporate Bank and Asset Finance and a credit role in Specialised Finance Risk. Chris holds a degree in Economics from the University of Warwick.

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