To anyone dreaming of quitting the sweaty commute and daily grind for a life of holidays, sport, and never working again, Liam Griffin says: don’t do it.

His family sold Addison Lee for £300 million in 2013, with Griffin staying on at the cab firm until he fell out with its private equity buyers Carlyle in 2015. He then retired, aged 42.

Five years of travelling, angel investing, property development, triathlons and Ironman followed — “all those things for when you’ve got lots of spare time” — before he realised:  “I missed work.”

“Early retirement means you miss your sense of purpose,” he says. “During that time I read every self-help book going – it’s not all happiness and light to be sat at home at 42 with no job.”

Griffin has spent his career in cabs, starting with childhood summer holidays in the tiny Battersea minicab office of Addison Lee, the business his dad founded in 1975, where “I’d price dockets, fix radios, anything, really.” He joined the firm after graduating from Loughborough University, taking over as CEO from his father, John, in 2006.

Addison Lee’s sale in 2013 was not about the money, Griffin claims, but expansion. He wanted to take Addison Lee to the US and across the UK.

“Then Uber came on the radar. And Carlisle pulled the plug on all of our ambitions.”

It wasn’t an easy partnership: “Going from family business to private equity was a bit of a culture shock. We’d never had a board meeting prior to the takeover. And I didn’t take particularly well to it.”

Griffin quit in 2015, but remained on the board. Addison Lee floundered and by 2018 it was posting a £39 million loss. Carlyle tried and failed to sell it to avoid losing control through a debt-for-equity-swap from frustrated backers. Griffin’s increasingly vocal criticism saw his replacement as CEO banning him from its building (“and I owned it!”).

Then came the unfulfilled millionaire years — although they were good to him. The now-49-year-old is tanned and far more relaxed looking than the average CEO, sporting a collarless white shirt with a wrist of boho bangles.

Griffin finally bought back Addison Lee in 2020 “for considerably less than what we sold it for” — said to be around £125 million. He used his own cash, plus backing led by Cheyne Capital.

There was one wrinkle: he hadn’t phoned Addison Lee’s founder to discuss his return first. “My dad hasn’t been overly supportive ,” Griffin says, looking pained. “I’ve been slightly disappointed by his lack of enthusiasm for me coming back and doing this. I think his view was that we couldn’t do it again without him.”

Residential developer Lifestory has secured two development loans totalling £90m to be used over six sites in the UK.

The funding will cover sites in Lichfield, Lymington, West Byfleet, Bath, Cranleigh and Wooburn Green for later living developments, which will range from one to three-bedroom homes. The properties will represent a total GDV of £160m across the 315 homes.

Lifestory was formed in 2019 through the merger of established retirement living housebuilders PegasusLife and Renaissance Retirement with open-market housing specialist Anthology.

This created a business with more than 2,500 homes across 50 developments around the UK, with a value of more than £1.5 billion.

David Clark the CFO at Lifestory said: “With a current lack of suitable housing across the market for all life stages, we’re striving to address this shortage by prioritising the delivery of residential communities across the UK, with a strong focus on later-living homes for those seeking to downsize”.

Cheyne Capital manages around £8bn of assets, of which approximately half are in real estate investments. The funding from the firm was arranged by debt and equity advisory firm Moorhall Capital on behalf of Lifestory.

Richard Howe of Cheyne Capital said: “Later living is an asset class in which we have strong conviction and we are confident that Lifestory has a market leading team with the complete set of capabilities to deliver this strategy and manage our investment.

“Moreover, Lifestory is directly aligned with our ESG principles and we value the team’s focus on sustainability as well as their dedication to good corporate citizenship. As this asset class continues to evolve, we will be selectively reviewing new opportunities with a view to investing further capital into this sector.”

Real Estate Credit Investments (LON:RECI) is a closed-ended investment company, incorporated in Guernsey, which originates and invests in real estate debt secured by commercial or residential properties in Western Europe, focusing primarily on the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The Company’s aim is to deliver a stable quarterly dividend with minimal volatility, across economic and credit cycles, through a levered exposure to real estate credit investments.

Real Estate Credit Investments Ltd (LON:RECI) has announced that the Investment Manager’s Q4 Investor Presentation is now available on the Company’s website at:

reci-april-2022-company-update-presentation-2022-05-final

An extract from the Summary section of the presentation is set out for investors in the Appendix to this announcement.

Appendix: Q4 Investor Presentation Extract

Key Quarter Updates

Portfolio

–   12 new deals  completed (£172m of commitments) since 31 March 2021, showing strength of opportunity post the initial impact of Covid

–     No defaults in the portfolio.

–     Successful and favourable completion on the last remaining hotel loan restructuring.

–     Migration of portfolio to senior lending in keeping with the compelling opportunity set therein

Cash

–     Cash reserves remain robust, target at between 5% to 10% of NAV

Dividend

–    Dividends maintained at 3p per quarter, 8.0% annualised yield, based on share price, as at 31   March 2022

•     Employs term matched financing, alongside flexible short dated financing

–     Successful term matching financing on selected senior loan deals

Opportunities

–    Bank lending remains constrained across Europe and high barriers to entry secures a continued compelling investment landscape, especially in senior lending.

–  The Company expects to deploy its currently available cash resources to its near term commitments, and if cash resources permit, in some of the potential new deals in the Cheyne pipeline

–   Cheyne’s pipeline includes a mix of UK, French and Spanish opportunities, which all offer attractive yields

Summary : Investment Opportunity

Attractive returns from low LTV credit exposure to UK and European commercial real estate assets

• Weighted Average LTV on underlying investments of 62.4% as at 31 March 2022

• Predominantly large, well capitalised, and experienced institutional borrowers

Quarterly dividends delivered consistently since October 2013

• The Company has consistently sought to pay a stable quarterly dividend

• This has led to a stable annualised dividend of around 7% of NAV

Highly granular book

• 63 positions

Transparent and conservative leverage

• Net leverage 14.0% (with £52.8m cash) as at 31 March 2022 versus a leverage limit of 40%

• Access to established real estate investment team at Cheyne, which manages c$5bn AUM

Access to pipeline of enhanced return investment opportunities identified by Cheyne

Robust mitigation against a rising rates environment

• A high yielding portfolio, combined with a short weighted average life of under 2 years, ensures minimal exposure to yield widening and the ability to redeploy quickly at higher rates

Bite Investments, an international alternative investments and technology company, has made four significant hires.

Bite’s mission is to utilise its technology platform to expand access to the alternative investment ecosystem.

Justin Mason will become the Global Head of Asset and Wealth Management Sales, effective 25 April. Mason joined Bite from Blackstone’s subsidiary, La Trobe Financial (recently sold to Brookfield Asset Management in March 2022), where he sat on top of client partnerships across the wealth management industry.

Bite has also named Matthew Purcell as Finance Director. Purcell spent the initial part of his career working in financial and business management roles in structured finance at Barclays Capital before moving into senior finance roles in several fast-scaling technology and Fintech companies.

Alex Seymour has joined Bite as Chief Legal Officer. He has more than 20 years of experience in financial services and joined Bite from JP Morgan Chase Bank where he was Head of Transaction Management, EMEA & APAC, Real Estate Finance. Previously, he held senior roles at Cheyne Capital and Deutsche Pfandbriefbank.

Addison Lee has trimmed its losses as demand for taxis in London picks up after a turbulent two years.

The cab company returned to an underlying profit of £7.9 million in the 12 months to August 2021, recovering from a £9.4 million underlying loss in 2020.

On a pre-tax basis, losses reduced from £39.8 million in 2020 to £23.1 million last year. Turnover rose from £52 million to £164 million.

The taxi firm was hit badly by the impact of lockdowns in London, which resulted in a dramatic drop in demand.

But Addison Lee said business was beginning to recover as London gets back to normal.

More recently, passenger revenue has increased 47% and the group turned an underlying profit of £5 million in the first three months of the year.

Addison Lee’s CEO, Liam Griffin, said: “With travel now returning to levels seen in 2019, we are confident that this is the start of a return to significant growth for the business.”

In October, the company announced a recruitment drive to sign up 1,000 new drivers, saying it would guarantee them £5,000 in earnings in their first month.

Faced with a potential driver shortage as it tries to ramp up its operations again, Addison Lee added extra benefits such as sick pay, maternity cover and financial support if drivers are involved in an accident to its existing pay offer.

The improving financial performance comes two years after Addison Lee, which is London’s biggest private car hire operator, was bought by a consortium of investors led by former director Griffin, son of Addison Lee’s founder John Griffin, and Cheyne Capital.

The deal went through weeks before the UK was plunged into the first coronavirus lockdown.

Since then, the leadership team has had to make “numerous tough decisions for the long-term success of the business”, the company said.

It ditched its loss-making international businesses, instead choosing to focus on the London market.

In July, it bought ComCab London, bringing the number of cars it has on the road to around 6,500. It has announced plans to move its core London fleet to electric vehicles by the end of next year.

Rival Uber has reported similar signs of improvement: earlier this year it posted an operating profit in its second quarter as demand for its ride-hailing service approached pre-pandemic levels.

Cheyne Capital is lending £219 million to Riverstone, which provides residential property in premium London locations for people of over 65 years.

The senior finance facility will be used for a development in Kensington and represents the UK’s largest single asset debt deal for the later living sector, according to Cheyne.

Riverstone Kensington is at Royal Warwick Square and will comprise 190 one, two and three-bedroom apartments and will welcome its first residents this year. Announced in July 2019, it is being developed by St Edward.

The financing follows a year after Cheyne provided Riverstone with a £99 million facility for its Fulham Riverside  residence, which is due to open in the second half of 2022.  Riverstone Fulham will have 161 one, two and three-bedroom apartments and was acquired in 2018 from Barratt London and London & Quadrant. Riverstone’s residences include amenities such as a spa, pool, restaurant, cinema and concierge services as well as on-site professional care, when it is needed.

“The model, which has seen great success internationally, is set to experience further demand over the coming years in the UK as its over 65s population continues to grow. Riverstone’s proposition is ideally placed to meet increasing demand,” said Simon Loveridge, Riverstone’s chief financial officer.

Earlier this month Riverstone announced the acquisition of its third residence, on Bishops Avenue, near Hampstead Heath in north west London. The company acquired a 2.5-acre site and will build a 230,000 sq ft project with an all-electric energy strategy targeting a net zero carbon plan.

Cheyne Capital has provided a €262.7m (£219m) senior facility to Riverstone, the provider of exceptional London living for over 65s in prime London locations, for its Riverstone Kensington residence. This comes a year after Cheyne provided a €119m (£99m) facility to Riverstone for its Fulham Riverside residence, which is due to open in the second half of 2022. The latest funding from Cheyne Capital represents the UK’s largest single asset debt deal for the later living sector.

Filippo Alessandria of Cheyne Capital said: “Our continued support of the Riverstone model is a testament to our confidence in their ability to source great London locations for their best-in-class later living schemes – the Kensington scheme is further proof of this and we look forward to its opening later this year. We are also particularly supportive of Riverstone’s sustainability plans, in terms of both the environment and local community engagement, and, to reflect this, have agreed ESG-related ratchets in our loan terms.”

Simon Loveridge, Riverstone’s Chief Financial Officer, said: “Securing further finance from Cheyne Capital for our Kensington residence reinforces the appeal of the Riverstone offering and our plans to deliver a platform of scale in prime London locations. We are focused on delivering residences that are at the forefront of sustainable innovation and are committed to working with the local communities we operate in. The model, which has seen great success internationally, is set to experience further demand over the coming years in the UK as its over 65s population continues to grow. Riverstone’s proposition is ideally placed to meet increasing demand.”

Cheyne Capital has provided a £219 million senior facility to Riverstone, the provider of exceptional London living for over 65s in prime London locations, for its Riverstone Kensington residence.

This comes a year after Cheyne provided a £99 million facility to Riverstone for its Fulham Riverside residence, which is due to open in the second half of 2022. The latest funding from Cheyne Capital represents the UK’s largest single asset debt deal for the later living sector.

Filippo Alessandria of Cheyne Capital said: “Our continued support of the Riverstone model is a testament to our confidence in their ability to source great London locations for their best-in-class later living schemes – the Kensington scheme is further proof of this and we look forward to its opening later this year. We are also particularly supportive of Riverstone’s sustainability plans, in terms of both the environment and local community engagement, and, to reflect this, have agreed ESG-related ratchets in our loan terms.”

Simon Loveridge, Riverstone’s Chief Financial Officer, said: “Securing further finance from Cheyne Capital for our Kensington residence reinforces the appeal of the Riverstone offering and our plans to deliver a platform of scale in prime London locations. We are focused on delivering residences that are at the forefront of sustainable innovation and are committed to working with the local communities we operate in.

“The model, which has seen great success internationally, is set to experience further demand over the coming years in the UK as its over 65s population continues to grow. Riverstone’s proposition is ideally placed to meet increasing demand.”

Riverstone is currently developing three major sites in London, in Fulham, Kensington and Hampstead Heath, and has a near-term pipeline of several further sites.

Cheyne Capital has provided a £219m development loan to London retirement living developer Riverstone. Cheyne Capital said funding, which has been provided to fund Riverstone’s new Kensington development, represents the UK’s largest single asset debt deal in the later living sector. The transaction is the second deal between Cheyne Capital and the Goldman Sachs-backed London retirement living developer. In March last year, Cheyne Capital provided a £99m development loan facility for Riverstone’s Fulham Riverside development which is due to open in the second half of 2this year. Filippo Alessandria of Cheyne Capital said: “Our continued support of the Riverstone model is a testament to our confidence in their ability to source great London locations for their best-in-class later living schemes – the Kensington scheme is further proof of this and we look forward to its opening later this year. “We are also particularly supportive of Riverstone’s sustainability plans, in terms of both the environment and local community engagement, and, to reflect this, have agreed ESG-related ratchets in our loan terms.” Simon Loveridge, Riverstone’s CFO, said: “Securing further finance from Cheyne Capital for our Kensington residence reinforces the appeal of the Riverstone offering and our plans to deliver a platform of scale in prime London locations. We are focused on delivering residences that are at the forefront of sustainable innovation and are committed to working with the local communities we operate in. “The model, which has seen great success internationally, is set to experience further demand over the coming years in the UK as its over 65s population continues to grow. Riverstone’s proposition is ideally placed to meet increasing demand.” Riverstone is currently developing three major sites in London, in Fulham, Kensington and Hampstead Heath, and has a near-term pipeline of several further sites.

Cheyne Capital has provided a £219m development loan to London retirement living developer Riverstone.

Cheyne Capital said funding, which has been provided to fund Riverstone’s new Kensington development, represents the UK’s largest single asset debt deal in the later living sector.

The transaction is the second deal between Cheyne Capital and the Goldman Sachs-backed London retirement living developer. In March last year, Cheyne Capital provided a £99m development loan facility for Riverstone’s Fulham Riverside development which is due to open in the second half of 2this year.

Filippo Alessandria of Cheyne Capital said: “Our continued support of the Riverstone model is a testament to our confidence in their ability to source great London locations for their best-in-class later living schemes – the Kensington scheme is further proof of this and we look forward to its opening later this year.

“We are also particularly supportive of Riverstone’s sustainability plans, in terms of both the environment and local community engagement, and, to reflect this, have agreed ESG-related ratchets in our loan terms.”

Simon Loveridge, Riverstone’s CFO, said: “Securing further finance from Cheyne Capital for our Kensington residence reinforces the appeal of the Riverstone offering and our plans to deliver a platform of scale in prime London locations. We are focused on delivering residences that are at the forefront of sustainable innovation and are committed to working with the local communities we operate in.

“The model, which has seen great success internationally, is set to experience further demand over the coming years in the UK as its over 65s population continues to grow. Riverstone’s proposition is ideally placed to meet increasing demand.”

Riverstone is currently developing three major sites in London, in Fulham, Kensington and Hampstead Heath, and has a near-term pipeline of several further sites.

Real Estate Credit Investments (LON:RECI) is a closed-ended investment company, incorporated in Guernsey, which originates and invests in real estate debt secured by commercial or residential properties in Western Europe, focusing primarily on the United Kingdom, France and Germany. The Company’s aim is to deliver a stable quarterly dividend with minimal volatility, across economic and credit cycles, through a levered exposure to real estate credit investments.

Real Estate Credit Investments Ltd (LON:RECI) announced its Investment Manager’s monthly Fact Sheet as at 31 March 2022.

The highlights of the monthly update are provided below:

NAV as at 31 March 2022 was £1.499 per share after payment of the latest dividend, representing an overall decrease of 2.2p per share from the 28 February 2022 NAV of £1.521 per share.

The change in NAV per share was due to:-

the payment of the fourth interim dividend of 3.0p, which went ex-dividend in March,

receipt of 1.0p of interest income; and

0.2p of negative mark-to-market (‘MTM’) adjustments across the bond portfolio, due to yield-widening across the corporate bond market, largely driven by the war in Ukraine and related considerations.

Since 1 April 2021, the total NAV return for RECI was 7.2%.

During the month of March 2022, RECI committed £20.0m to a senior development loan to support the development of an assisted living facility in London. This deal has an expected IRR of 8.5%, with an entry LTV of 60% and an expected exit date of December 2024.

Since 1 April 2021, RECI has:-

committed £171.8m to 12 deals across 6 countries; and

fully realised a total of £94.8m across 6 deals.

RECI paid out 4 dividends since 1 April 2021, totalling 12p.

The pipeline for the Cheyne real estate debt business continues to grow in 2022, with many new attractive opportunities.