Cogress set to resume lending soon as it lists loans
Property investment company Cogress is set to resume lending soon as the firm seeks to raise over £5.5m through its investors after signing off a handful of deals.
In the past few months, the firm- which raises money through mezzanine debt, private equity and hotel investment- stopped all new lending during the Covid-19 crisis to focus on managing its portfolio of more than 60 live deals.
And at the end of May Cogress said it is planning to launch a new loan on the platform in the next six to eight weeks and now it is putting loans forward to its investors after signing a few deals.
The property investment firm has conducted the due diligence to launch a £5.5m portfolio of hotels with two in Greece, one in Germany and one in the US.
Tal Orly (pictured), chief executive of Cogress, said the deals have been signed off but he is just waiting to see whether there will be a second wave of coronavirus in two or three weeks’ time before launching them.
On top of this, Cogress has signed two development finance deals, for a new build of 42 units in Croydon and for converting a pub into four town houses and building around 30 new flats, by a canal in Norwich. He added more deals are in the pipeline, including a development in Hackney, London.
Orly said the deals are time specific and hence Cogress needs to raise the money soon and has started to do so quietly.
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“We’re careful and have sought the most promising deals,” he said.
“We have a very healthy pipeline and the demand is there.
“We just need to see the direction of the market and the sentiment of it opening and the quarantine requirements. Lots of people have been hit hard by the crisis and every good step the government makes will encourage people to spend and slowly bring everything back to normal.
“We need an economy to survive and we need to encourage people to support it by using incentives, which will reduce unemployment.”
In December Cogress shifted its focus from development lending to a variety of different partnerships and geographies to cater for Brexit uncertainty among investors.