Acquisition of Bluestone Mortgages Limited (BML)

Shawbrook Group plc - Shawbrook to acquire Bluestone Mortgages Limited ("BML")

Shawbrook Group plc (the Group) today announces that it has signed an agreement to acquire Bluestone Mortgages Limited ("BML"), a specialist mortgage lender focused primarily on owner-occupied mortgages.

BML, part of the Bluestone Group, was established in 2014 and has rapidly secured a notable share of the UK specialist mortgage market through a compelling product and service proposition.

Since first establishing a platform lending arrangement in 2017, Shawbrook has maintained a successful relationship with BML.

The two organisations also share an approach to providing specialist finance at scale, which combines technology and data with the expertise and judgement of their people. This 'best of both' model is key to delivering a seamless digital experience with swift decision making and certainty of funding.

Subject to satisfaction of the conditions precedent to the acquisition, completion is expected to take place in Q2 2023.

Marcelino Castrillo, the Group's Chief Executive Officer commented:

"We are delighted to have strengthened our long-standing and successful partnership with Bluestone Mortgages through this acquisition. Bluestone Mortgages is a well-established brand in the UK specialist residential mortgage market, and by bringing the two organisations together, we can use our combined capabilities and scale to offer an even stronger proposition to UK homeowners.

Driven by increasing numbers of people choosing to work for themselves or in sectors where incomes are complex, we anticipate significant long-term growth in the specialist mortgage market. With both Bluestone Mortgages and The Mortgage Lender brands combined with Shawbrook's strong and stable balance sheet, the Group is very well placed to consistently meet this growing demand."

Steve Seal, Bluestone Mortgages' Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"This transaction is great news for Bluestone Mortgages, our intermediary partners and our customers. Shawbrook has been a long standing strategic partner for many years and joining the Shawbrook Group is a natural step as we continue to grow and develop the business.

We have exciting growth plans and the support available from Shawbrook will help to accelerate these, enabling BML to provide innovative lending solutions to the growing number of customers who will need the support of a specialist mortgage lender."

For further information, please contact:

Stephanie Mackrell

Tulchan Communications

[email protected]

For investor enquiries, please contact:

Murray Long

Head of Investor Relations

[email protected]

About Shawbrook - Banking for the real world

Shawbrook is designed to accommodate individuality, diversity and the dynamics of the modern world. We are driven by our purpose, to power up ingenuity to create opportunity, every single day.

Leveraging strong digital capabilities to complement deep human expertise, our 'best of both' proposition is ideally placed to provide personalised finance solutions to those with immediate and often complex needs. We offer a diversified range of practical lending and savings products across three customer franchises to serve consumers, businesses and real estate professionals.

Our advanced digital platform enables us to provide a differentiated proposition to an expanding customer base. Our multi-channel distribution and end-to-end digital capabilities are empowered by our expert talent and partnerships with a range of leading FinTech and data providers to deliver best-in-class customer experiences.

The Group's lending activities are primarily funded by a stable retail deposit book consisting of easy access and ISA accounts, variable rate notice accounts and fixed rate fixed term accounts (mostly one - five years). Shawbrook Bank Limited is an operating entity of Shawbrook Group plc. Shawbrook Bank Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority and is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.