Meet Ajoy
I joined Lawrence Stephens as Head of Banking in September 2022, having led the Real Estate Finance department at a Top 200 UK law firm for almost five years.
I act for a wide range of different lenders, non-bank lenders, alternative lenders, entrepreneurs, private family offices, property companies, funds, sponsors, developers, joint venture vehicles, entrepreneurs and borrowers on real estate investment and development finance projects across the UK ranging from £100,000 to £75m.
The bulk of the transactions I advise on are between £1m and £50m and span a wide variety of asset classes including residential, office, PRS, student accommodation, mixed use schemes, hotel, retail and buy to let projects. I also have extensive experience working on transactions which involve international elements and offshore jurisdictions and working for international based clients looking to invest in the UK on property transactions.
I enjoy working with a variety of different clients from the individual investor to the family office or corporate institution or variety of different lenders and no one client is the same. I enjoy advising my clients on a wide range of issues (not exclusively related to just Banking and Real Estate Finance). In addition to documenting and negotiating transactions, I advise on structuring deals and on real estate financing issues and have also been on secondment to a clearing bank.
Experience highlights
- Acting for a wide range of different bridging lenders, clearing banks, alternative lenders, private banks and non-bank lenders in respect of numerous investment and development facilities for numerous real estate transactions ranging between £250,000 to £75m for UK-based and international borrowers across different asset classes such as residential, PRS, commercial, office, student accommodation, retail and mixed use schemes
- Advising a private equity fund in connection with a £200m investment in a UK development finance lending platform, to assist an alternative lender in providing development finance in the UK residential market
- Advising a privately owned family property company based in the UK in connection with a £33m senior loan facility for a mixed portfolio of properties in Chelsea
- Acting for a group of investors on the £5m bridging, £35m development finance, £35m investment finance and eventual sale of a 750 bed PRS scheme in North England to an international buyer
- Advising the borrower on the £65m refinancing of an office development in the City of London and subsequent partial debt transfer to a senior lender
- Advising a senior lender in respect of a £5m refinancing secured on a range of residential buy to let properties
- Acted for an alternative lender providing a secured property finance facility for the development of a student accommodation block in North England with a gross development value of £20m
- Acted for a lender in relation to the £20m refinancing of a student accommodation scheme in Bristol, which involved finance, real estate and construction advice
- Advising various listed managed funds in relation to numerous financings totalling £500m with different lenders in respect of the purchase of over 100 properties ranging from residential, mixed use and commercial investments and developments in the UK
- Advising a UK property development company in connection with a £5m term loan provided by a local authority to fund the forward purchase and development of an office building
- Acting for a private family based property company on the £15m development finance of a student accommodation project with an alternative lender
