Castle Trust Bank, a specialist bank serving nearly 170,000 customers, today announced it has been acquired by vehicles backed by Sixth Street, a leading global investment firm, and affiliates of Bayview Asset Management ("Bayview"), a global alternative investment management firm, from J.C. Flowers & Co, a private equity firm solely focused on financial services.
As equal partners, Sixth Street and Bayview bring significant financial strength, deep expertise in credit markets and asset-based finance, and a long-term investment horizon well-suited to support financial institutions through periods of growth and transformation.
Castle Trust Bank will continue to be led by its experienced management team, including Chief Executive Officer Martin Bischoff, supported by a robust, tech-enabled platform built for scale. In addition, Sixth Street and Bayview have agreed to commit additional capital to fuel growth across the business, including expanding the Bank’s retail savings franchise, broadening its product offering, and attracting additional customer deposits, while deepening its commitment to specialist property and retail finance through its Omni Capital Retail Finance business. These initiatives also position the Bank to pursue potential inorganic asset opportunities at an attractive time in the market cycle.
"This investment from Sixth Street and Bayview is a strong endorsement of our strategy, our people, and our future potential,” said Mr. Bischoff. “We have grown customer savings balances to more than £1.6 billion, built a specialist property finance loan book of more than £1.1 billion and a retail finance loan book exceeding £200 million — establishing a strong platform for future growth. With the backing of our new shareholders, we are well placed to invest in our customer proposition, expand across retail savings, specialist property and retail finance, and pursue additional growth opportunities while maintaining a disciplined focus on risk and delivering sustainable outcomes for customers, colleagues, brokers, retailers, and partners."
“We look forward to working with Martin and the highly seasoned management team to support Castle Trust Bank in continuing to deliver the exceptional service its customers expect,” said Masashi Washida, Managing Director, Asset Based Finance at Sixth Street. “Together with Bayview, we believe the Bank’s experienced leadership and its robust, well-established risk and technology platform create a strong foundation for sustainable growth and scalable operations at an attractive time in the market.”
"Castle Trust Bank has built an impressive reputation for customer service, specialist expertise, and prudent growth,” said Pierre Lussato, Managing Director at Bayview. "We look forward to supporting the Bank's continued growth across savings, specialist lending, and retail finance, while it delivers innovative products and excellent customer outcomes.”
