Octane Capital
CASE STUDY
THE BROKER’S VIEW
So, what do our broker partners think of how we operate? We commissioned an interview to find out… CPC Finance is a Watford-based specialist property finance broker established over many years. The business is run by director Karl Griggs and his team of funding professionals with over 65 years’ combined industry experience.
WHAT SORT OF LENDING ARE YOU PLACING WITH OCTANE CAPITAL? Predominantly it’s guaranteed buy-to-let exits and developer bridging deals that include refurb and the asset purchase/refinancing itself—they fund both parts of that.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU DEALT WITH OCTANE? I’ve known the Octane Capital principals for over 25 years. I’ve built a relationship with Mark and Matt from their previous roles and have followed them as they’ve grown.
WHY SUCH LOYALTY? Because they get it. They get that the lending business between client, broker and lender is 8
based on relationships and, therefore, trust. But they also have an approach that others don’t: they’re a unique outfit and, as the broker, you deal directly with the actual decision makers.
CAN YOU EXPAND ON WHAT YOU MEAN BY ‘UNIQUE’? Octane doesn’t work with a tick-box mentality, preferring instead to look at each deal in the round. They look at all the options in building a case and they spend time on each one. It’s a very old school methodology but one whereby I know that I can present something to them that may not fit traditional lending criteria (as most lenders would see it) and they’ll try to find a way to lend. It’s a way of working that seems geared to say ‘yes’ rather than traditional lenders that look for an opportunity to say ‘no’.
AND YOU DON’T SEE THIS WAY OF DOING BUSINESS ELSEWHERE? No, especially from what I’d call the ‘establishment’ lenders. The decision makers there have long since become distant from the coalface and therefore they feel they have to introduce a layer of automated checks in order to protect their book. In effect, traditional lenders
