Ex-Countrywide Chief Lands New Role

Former Countrywide chief executive and chairman Grenville Turner has been appointed as chairman of development lender Silbury Finance.

Turner was CEO of Countrywide, from 2007 to 2014, during which time he took the group private and subsequently oversaw its return to the public market in 2013 as part of a major IPO.

Prior to that, Turner held several executive roles at Halifax Bank of Scotland plc, including chief executive of business-to-business banking and chief executive of Intelligent Finance.

Earlier this year he agreed to become chair of BidX1, a digital property investment platform first established in Dublin in 2011, before launching in the UK in 2018.

Turner’s appointment as chair of Silbury Finance comes with a remit to help deliver the firm’s “ambitious growth plans”.

Turner, who has been on the boards of Rightmove, Zoopla, US realtor Realogy and Sainsburys Bank, said: “The UK mid-ticket residential lending space was ripe for disruption, and Gavin and Matthew had the conviction and experience to launch, and subsequently scale, a product offering that is fully aligned with borrower needs.

“This is a rare opportunity to join a dynamic team, running an institutional quality platform in what is a hugely underserved part of the debt market.”

Silbury Finance launched last year and has deployed around £490m of senior finance across 13 schemes in the UK retirement living and residential sector.

It originated around £300m of new lending in the second half of this year.

Gavin Eustace, founding partner at Silbury Finance, commented: “Grenville’s track record launching and running a number of blue-chip residential property and finance businesses speaks for itself.

“Whilst we are seeing strengthening demand for sustainability-linked, competitively priced senior debt, we are operating against a volatile backdrop, and we look forward to leveraging Grenville’s over 40 years’ experience as we accelerate our growth plans.”

Ex-Countrywide chief joins BidX1 board as chair