Hampshire Trust Bank appoints head of portfolio management

Hampshire Trust Bank has appointed John Archbold as head of portfolio management for its development finance division.

John, who is a chartered surveyor, has over 30 years’ experience in property finance, valuation and development. He joins HTB following nearly six years as head of property risk at Aldermore Bank, where he oversaw all aspects of property risk, covering residential, commercial and property development.

Prior to Aldermore, John worked for five years as a valuer/senior restructuring manager at Dunbar Assets and before then spent five years as managing director of Irish property development firm, Newlyn Developments.

In his new role, John will be tasked with building a portfolio management team for HTB to ensure live development finance loans are proactively managed whilst holding responsibility for the bank’s policies, procedures, and property-related decisions.

Alex Upton, managing director of development finance, commented: “In the world of development finance, origination is just the first step – it’s like getting to Old Kent Road. What really sets the great development finance lenders out from the pack is their ability to support developers through the life of the project as they move around the board – dealing with unexpected costs, utility companies and chance events – and of course, hopefully passing go, collecting £200 and building those houses on Mayfair.

“A great portfolio management team is key to delivering this great service and I am thrilled that John has joined, giving us the benefit of his 30 years+ experience, with plans to build the best portfolio management team in the game. I call the ‘top hat’!”

John Archbold added: "The development finance team has ambitious plans to grow the business and this represents a great opportunity to work with HTB’s development finance customers to deliver a range of fantastic schemes, both in the residential sectors and in new asset classes. The bank’s recent decision to increase its maximum loan amount for development finance cases to £25m means we will be able to fund more great projects.

“I’m thrilled to be joining HTB at such an exciting time in this journey and am confident that my extensive experience in property development, valuations and development funding can help bring these ambitious plans to fruition whilst ensuring our in-life portfolio of loans are carefully managed and supported.”