London-based company tries to distance itself from Russian money
When he first started his company, Jonathan Samuels was delighted to get major Russian investment.
Now? Maybe not so much.
Tough sanctions in reaction to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine mean that both the EU and the UK have slapped investors Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven with sanctions.
The two Russians are co-founders of $20 Billion LetterOne, which has provided Samuels’ Octane Capital with funds to enable it to have provided nearly £1 billion of short-term funding for property developers.
Although LetterOne hasn’t yet been hit with sanctions, London headquartered Octane is getting prepared for if the Luxembourg-based investment fund is targeted.
“Steps were taken prior to any sanctions announcements in the UK, with an abundance of caution, to protect them in case of any unexpected and unlikely fallout,” a LetterOne spokesman told Bloomberg.
Octane, which has provided over 1,100 mortgages and bridging loans since its 2017 inception has issued shares to some of its management team that have voting rights that only arise if its funder is sanctioned.
Lawyers explained to Mortgage Introducer that the move meant that LetterOne’s stake has now slipped below 50% in the lender – to hopefully shield it from sanctions.
Sanctioned Fridman is also the founder of Alfabank, which was hit with sanctions just a few days ago. The Moscow-based bank is one of the top 10 banks in Russia.
Jonathan Samuels founded Octane Capital in 2017, and is also the CEO of Upfront – a finance matching platform for Uber drivers. He previously started Dragonfly Property Finance, having started his mortgage career at Standard Chartered, where he rose to head of residential mortgages. He sold Dragonfly to fund manager Octopus in late 2013.
