LONDON (Reuters) -British lender Shawbrook said on Tuesday it had reached an agreement to buy specialist lender ThinCats for an undisclosed sum, as it looks to bolster its small business lending arm.
The acquisition will add around a 700 million pound loan book to Shawbrook, with the deal expected to be completed later this year.
“This acquisition will serve to further scale-up and deepen our presence in the very large and growing SME market,” said Marcelino Castrillo, chief executive of Shawbrook.
The private equity owners of Shawbrook have been weighing a potential 2 billion ($2.7 billion) initial public offering of the company in London this year, the Financial Times reported in July.
($1 = 0.7402 pounds)
(Reporting by Iain WithersEditing by Bernadette Baum)
