Shawbrook Financial Sponsors lending exceeds £250m in record first half

Shawbrook’s Financial Sponsors team deployed more than £250 million of incremental lending during the first half of 2026, marking its strongest first-half lending performance to date.

The new lending has taken the Financial Sponsors loan book beyond £1 billion, as the bank continued to provide funding for private equity sponsors investing in UK SMEs.

Shawbrook achieved the record lending figure despite subdued transaction volumes and strong competition for deals across the UK lower mid-market.

Activity during the first half included funding for a number of new investment platforms as well as additional lending to existing relationships.

Transactions spanned sectors including technology, education, healthcare and business services.

Shawbrook said the H1 performance reflected the growing scale of its Financial Sponsors business and its network of relationships across the private equity market.

The bank provides funding to support sponsor-backed businesses across a range of transactions and stages of development, with its latest lending taking the overall Financial Sponsors book above the £1 billion milestone.

James Salmon, head of Financial Sponsors at Shawbrook, said: “To deliver this record figure in such a competitive and challenging market is a real statement of strength of the team.

“This result reflects the depth and quality of the relationships we’ve built across the sponsor community, our ability to differentiate through service and speed, and our absolute focus on delivering a premium, dependable service for borrowers at every stage of a deal.”

Salmon said Shawbrook had also built a pipeline of further opportunities for the remainder of 2026.

“We’re proud to be backing such an exciting raft of new platforms, and the pipeline gives us real confidence as we move through the second half of the year,” he added.