Richard Butler
Richard Butler founded Henley Finance in 2013. After a successful career in property development he understood the needs of the professional and their requirements in short-term bridging finance and devised a way that they could be better met in Henley Finance.
Richard started life in the building industry where he ran his own company based primarily in north-west London specialising in working for developers and refurbishing their properties to prepare them for the market. He then gradually started buying, renovating his own properties. He would use bridging finance to purchase them, put them onto long term finance and then let them. This way he built up a portfolio of twenty-seven properties in and around Central London.
He came to understand the bridging sector and long-term finance sector and recognised a gap in the market for a bridging finance company that had their own in-house valuation team, not reliant on outside valuers that would be able to assess the project in its entirety and taking all aspects of the development into consideration.
This approach was also borne out when Richard attended a Risk Management Seminar at the Van Tharp Institute in the USA. The learning Richard took from this informs all decisions at Henley Finance, from the core of how the investments are placed, to ensuring our borrowers have the best exit strategy. Having this insight had also led to the development of some of the company's own lending products.
"We make sure our investors are protected so that no one project can affect another. The borrower gets protection on the basis that we don't take anything on unless it has stood up to our due diligence process and is viable. We are rigourous but in the end everyone benefits. Our aim is to help all sides of the project thrive."
Richard Butler, 2017