GRE Capital expands origination team with two senior hires
GRE Capital has appointed James Meigh as head of origination and Alex Stephens as business development manager as the real estate lender looks to expand its loan book across bridging, development finance, structured finance and term debt.
GRE Capital has expanded its origination team with the appointment of James Meigh as head of origination and Alex Stephens as business development manager.
Meigh joins from Recognise Bank with more than 36 years of banking experience. During five years at Recognise, he built its northern business development team before moving into a national role leading a team of 10.
He also sat on internal groups including the bank’s credit committee and led the development of a syndicated lender finance product.
Before joining Recognise, Meigh spent 12 years in Santander UK’s corporate and commercial division and held director roles at Bank of Ireland UK and Nationwide Building Society.
Stephens also joins from Recognise Bank and brings more than 20 years of commercial and corporate banking experience. His previous roles have covered lending, origination and operations at banks including Santander and RBS.
GRE Capital said the expanded origination team will target growth across bridging, structured finance, term debt and development finance, with further recruitment planned as the lender explores opportunities across the wider real estate finance market.
The lender has provided more than £150m across a range of asset classes so far this year and more than £500m since it was founded in 2021.
Recent transactions include a £15.9m refinance of a four-star boutique hotel in Knightsbridge, an £8.5m loan secured against a redeveloped Grade A office building in London and a £3.9m facility funding the acquisition and repositioning of a mixed-use building in Richmond.
James Meigh, head of origination at GRE Capital, said: “In a market in which value is increasingly hard to find and absolutely vital to create, a lender that understands real estate beyond the spreadsheets and can provide hands-on support is invaluable. Having known and respected Michael and Daniel for over four years and sharing their central value that strong relationships are at the heart of good deals, I’m thrilled to be working with them and with Alex once again to take on an opportunity that is vast in scale.”
Daniel Benton, director at GRE Capital, said: “James and Alex bring a collective half century’s worth of banking experience to GRE Capital, providing the energy, the contacts and the firepower we need as we expand ahead of what is going to be a very busy final quarter of the year and an even bigger year ahead.”
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