By Dave Rogers2021-02-17T09:41:00+00:00
Mark Castle joined firm in 2004
Mace has said its chief operations officer for its construction arm is stepping down and will take up a non-executive director’s role at the firm this spring.
Mark Castle joined the business from US fit-out specialist Structure Tone in 2004, having earlier spent seven years at Wates.
Mark Castle will step down as COO this April
He was recruited to set up the firm’s fixed-price contracting business, Mace Plus, and was later promoted to the Mace group board in 2013.
When he joined, Mace’s contracting business was turning over around £100m a year but in 2008 the firm finally inked its breakthrough deal to build Renzo Piano’s Shard for Sellar – after surviving the threat of Laing O’Rourke nipping in at the eleventh hour to take the job and having Sir Robert McAlpine run the rule over its final numbers.
MT Finance names head of new regulated lending division
By Gary Adams 2
nd February 2021 12:47 pm
Benggio hails from Masthaven Bank, where he worked as underwriting manager for part of his over four years’ stint at the lender.
He has seven years’ total experience in the specialist lending underwriting world.
Benggio says: “To be able to join the team at MT and be given the opportunity to lead the development and growth of our new regulated bridging department was one I could not pass up.
“I fundamentally believe when it comes to specialist lending, specifically bridging, quality of service offered and speed of the transaction are the two most important elements. These beliefs align with the history and culture at MT Finance and will be translated into our new regulated bridging finance offering.”
Bridging lending falls by 38% in 2020: MT Finance
By Gary Adams 29
th January 2021 9:42 am
The total volume of bridging lending transacted last year came to £455m last year, a 38 per cent drop on 2019’s £732.7m figure, says MT Finance in its latest bridging trends report.
Further changes in the market included the split between regulated and unregulated transactions changing significantly – from regulated loans making up 39 per cent of gross lending in 2019 to 49.4 per cent in 2020.
And average monthly interest rates went through changes too – in Q2 they peaked at 0.85 per cent only to drop to the lowest rate recorded since MT Finance’s report started in 2015 – 0.72 per cent.
SUCCESSFUL Pembrokeshire Football League club Hakin United has secured the future of its home ground for generations to come, with the purchase of The Observatory Field site. The Club has been supported by the Building Communities Trust, with funding from the National Lottery Community Fund, to secure the site for the benefit of the local community. The Vikings are ranked as the league’s most successful club, having won the division one title a record 19 times since 1945, as well as the Pembrokeshire Senior Cup a record 11 times. They remain the current champions after this season was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, and look forward to returning to a home they can now officially call their own.