Restructuring complex ownership to streamline and save

A period of growth saw Swoop’s customer overseeing a number of properties owned by various parties. With Swoop’s help, he brought them all under one roof.

Michael Murray, Founder of M Squared Accountants, says that when his company wanted to acquire a new property, it was an opportunity to restructure what had turned into a complex arrangement of ownership between trading entities and property holding companies.

Michael explains:

“We have a small business that is a property company. We are renting out one of the properties, had purchased our current premises and were looking to buy another in Peterhead. We were also trying to transfer a property from my wife into the business.”

The complexity had come about through a period of intense growth for M Squared, and as Michael puts it, something needed to be done, though he lacked the time to do much of the research into the market:

“The arrangements we had on our existing properties didn’t suit where we were let alone where we were going. The difficulty was that we needed funding to cover an existing agreement plus a large premises in a neighbouring town.”

Fortunately, he found Swoop.

Stuart Pawelczyk, head of commercial mortgages at Swoop, says:

“This deal included a good quality and valuable portfolio of properties, but lenders didn’t know how to ‘pigeon hole’ the deal: some of the properties were owner occupied and some were let to third party tenants, meaning they didn’t know whether to provide an owner occupied loan, or an investment loan.”

Swoop’s solution was:

• To work with Michael to understand where the businesses are presently, and where they want to be
• Create a plan of action around the transfer of ownership of assets to create a bankable deal for lenders
• Worked with lenders to implement the plan and provide a number of loan facilities that worked for both the customer and the lender across the portfolio, whilst keeping a simple security structure

Stuart turned the deal around faster than expected, allowing Michael to open new premises  in Fraser on 1 February and in Peterhead on 3 July.

Michael says that his experience has been overwhelmingly positive:

“The Swoop team kept in touch all the way through and made us aware of any questions from the lenders as they came up. Swoop were very supportive and attentive, making sure it was a very smooth process from start to finish. Based on my experience, I can highly recommend Swoop.”

By handing over the work to Swoop, Michael was able to focus on what he does best – running his accounting firm, which has just been announced as finalists in the Small Practice of the Year category of the Accountancy Excellence Awards – the only Scottish firm in the category.

Congratulations to Michael and the team from us at Swoop!

Swoop’s commercial mortgage team has the experience and knowledge to make your property ambitions happen. Whether it’s your first property or your fiftieth, click here to have a conversation with the experts.