During 2002, Freedom Finance opened in Spain it first European office. Based in Madrid, this now employs 23 local staff and markets a range of financial products focussed on mortgages to Spanish consumers. The office is currently dealing with over 2,000 new applications a month.
Freedom Finance has also recently acquired Bolane Services, the largest broking company in Sweden, which gives the company a foothold in Scandinavia. The acquisition of Bolane Services, which is based in Helfingsborg near Gothenburg, takes the total headcount at Freedom Finance to over 400.
Commenting on these developments, Colin Snowdon, Managing Director of Mortgages & Intermediary Business at Freedom Finance, said: “The development of an office in Spain, which has one of the highest levels of home ownership in Europe, and the acquisition of a business in Sweden are important first steps in our strategy to build Freedom Finance into a pan-European financial services group.
“Back here in the UK, we have just announced our intention to launch a network service for mortgage intermediaries and we will be launching our own lending operation in the coming months. Freedom’s intermediary business has also moved into larger premises in Wilmslow to provide capacity for our planned future growth.”
These developments come after a year in which Freedom Finance has celebrated being placed 6th in the North West in the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 and being shortlisted in the ‘Technology in Business’ category in the CBI Growing Business Awards. The double success follows two years of impressive growth for the group, which has seen profits leap from £3.1million in April 2002 to £6 million in 2003.
