NLC, a leading alternative fund finance lender, is delighted to announce that Ian Shanks has joined the firm as Senior Advisor and Chairman of the Investment Committee. Ian is one of the founding fathers of the Fund Finance market and best known for setting up Bank of Scotland’s (now part of Lloyds Banking Group) fund financing business back in 2000. During his carrier Ian held a number of senior positions within Funds equity and debt markets culminating in setting up Aberdeen Standard (now ABRDN) Fund Finance platform backed by Phoenix in 2018. That, combined with NLC founders’ activity at Investec, paved the way for institutional capital deployment into the Fund Finance market. Ian’s extensive banking and asset management experience built over 25 years in Fund Finance will help accelerate the growth of NLC’s platform even further.
Neno Raic, Founding Partner at NLC, said: “We’re very excited to add Ian to our team. Ian brings wealth of market knowledge and very unique skill set, having set up Fund Finance lending platforms both within a bank and an asset manager. We look forward working with Ian and leveraging on his extensive experience as we continue to grow our client universe and offering for private capital funds.”
Ian Shanks, Senior Advisor at NLC, said: “I am delighted to have been asked to join NLC and Chair its Investment Committee at a very exciting time in its growth and development. The NLC team already has a strong foundation of deal execution and fundraising. I look forward to working with the team, by helping them leverage my own experience and knowledge of building and creating teams as well as an investor base across the same market over the last 25 years.”
Ian’s Background
Ian started his career with Bank of Scotland (now Lloyds Banking Group), moving across to Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (the investment arm of Lloyds) which was sold in 2014 to Aberdeen Asset Management. In 2017 Aberdeen Asset Management merged with Standard Life, to create what is now called ABRDN. In 1997, Ian was one of the founding team members of Bank of Scotland’s private equity team making LP investments into primary and secondary funds across Europe.
During this period, Ian created the bank’s lending arm specifically focussed on providing financing solutions to private equity funds that encompassed capital call facilities, general partner support as well as leverage to both primary and secondary funds. The team was one of the pioneers in this market, later to be known as Fund Finance, and by 2006 the lending book was over £10bn. During the global financial crisis (GFC) the business was split into equity and debt. Equity became a part of Scottish Widows, while the debt business was carved out into another area of Lloyds Bank which is now one of the leading Fund Finance providers.
Over the next decade, Ian focussed on the equity assets initially working on liquidating LP positions to help shrink the bank’s balance sheet exposure. Following the acquisition of Scottish Widows by Aberdeen, Ian helped re-build the equity business with new investment activities along with acquisitions of private equity fund of fund managers to increase and diversify the investment portfolio.
In 2018, post Aberdeen’s merger with Standard Life, Ian was asked to develop and build capital call financing capabilities to support a major UK insurance client called Phoenix to allow them to enter this market. Whilst persuading Phoenix to appoint Abrdn as a manager for their Capital Call Financing investments, Ian developed the strategy, designed the rating methodology, build the team, and went onto source and execute significant dealflow. Within 12 months, Ian had fully deployed the initial Phoenix mandate and having established the business, proven its credentials as well as secured additional capital from new investors, Ian stepped aside to start his retirement.
