Hari joins as the firm launches its ‘Max Mezz’ solution, designed to fund up to 100% of costs for property developers. He joins fellow co-founder Matt Lenzie, who set up the company to address the funding gap many SME developers currently struggle with.
The Max Mezz solution has been launched by the firm amid what the co-founders see as a dearth of mezzanine product development in the UK.
“We’ve had a hard look at the market and the mezzanine space has been quiet due to a lot of legacy issues, so we thought about trying to solve that problem,” said Hari. “Max Mezz allows us to act as a conduit between investors and experienced developers with a strong track record and decent schemes.”
The solution has been six months in the making, in terms of testing numbers and having both investor and developer conversations. With a “decent pipeline” of opportunities ready to launch, Matt said the macro background of a new government could support this timing.
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“There’s a new government in power, and though that could bring challenges with new taxation, there is also a clear leaning towards investment in real estate and hopefully making changes to the planning process,” said Matt. “And interest rates seem to have stabilised as well. Together, that hopefully gives us a decent runway for the next few years.”
Prior to Max Capital, Hari held senior positions at Barclays, Bank of Scotland, Metro Bank and HSBC. His debt advisory career has included roles at Coreco, Knight Frank and Sirius Finance.
Matt said he was excited to work with Hari again, after the pair first worked together at Bank of Scotland nearly 20 years ago.
“Our combined experience of funding provides our developer clients with a diverse range of mezz and equity funding solutions combined with high-level relationships with senior debt providers in the UK,” he said.
Hari added: "I’m very excited to continue the finance journey that I have been on for many years, leveraging the deep relationships I have with both developers and investors in the sector."
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