ThinCats brings former CEO of British Business Bank in as Chair

Keith Morgan CBE takes over from Quentin Baer to head up the alternative financier’s board.

Specialist alternative lender or mid-sized UK companies, ThinCats, has announced the arrival of Keith Morgan CBE as the new Chair of its board.

Former founding CEO of the British Business Bank (BBB) – the UK government’s economic development bank for business, established in 2013 – Morgan brings experience in the SME and alternative finance markets, having helped deliver over £60bn of support to SMEs during his tenure at the BBB.

Founded in 2011, ThinCats is a non-bank lender targeting mid-sized UK businesses with a gross asset value of between £0.5m and £40m; a cohort that the lender claims has funding needs that can often prove too complex to fit traditional lending models operated by banks.

Morgan, a non-executive director at UK Asset Resolution, and with high-level experience at both Banco Santander and LEK Consulting, was awarded a CBE in 2020 for his services to small business finance. He takes over the role of Chair from Quentin Baer who will remain as a non-executive director on ThinCats’ board.

The news comes after the announcement last year that the alternative financier had landed £160m of investment from Wafra Capital Partners (WCP), which will help expand its funding base.

“I am delighted to be taking on the role of Chair at this time as ThinCats expands its operations and deploys its increased funding base to lend a further £2 billion to scale-up businesses over the next few years,” said Morgan.

ThinCats CEO, Amany Attia, added: “It is a critical time to be supporting mid-sized SMEs who are vital to employment creation and the long-term prospects of the UK economy. Many businesses are keen to make the most of growth opportunities, either organically or through acquisition, as pandemic restrictions have eased. We are seeing growing demand for our services as corporate debt advisers increasingly recommend alternative lenders to their clients.”

To date, the lender has provided more than £1.2bn in funding to UK companies, in loans ranging between £1m and £15m. A key distributor of funds to SMEs under the government backed CBILS and RLS schemes, ThinCats announced a record year in 2021, that saw a 9 per cent uplift on the previous year.