End of Year Letter From Group CEO

The year seems to have flown past at breakneck speed. I think for most of Enness’ clients and partners it was an easier year to navigate than 2020 - I don’t know anyone that isn’t relieved! 

As life returned to something more predictable this year, 2021 also delivered its fair share of big questions for businesses, and Enness is no exception. 

When Hugh and I founded Enness in 2007, we were driven by a desire to serve an overlooked part of the market: brokering high-value mortgages for high-net-worth and complex individuals. This year we grew to 40 staff in six offices doing just that. 

So far, so good. Except that over the past few years, we’ve realised that, once again, our clients are vastly underserved in other areas: we regularly hear of clients being turned down for loans because they have little income, often despite enormous wealth. Alternatively, our clients might have complex, international backgrounds that lenders can’t cater to. Another common theme is that business owners running fantastic companies can’t borrow capital to grow their businesses. The scenarios are endless, but the problem is simple: business owners, entrepreneurs, and HNWI struggle to access capital for no good reason.

Motivated by a healthy dose of frustration on behalf of our clients - we knew we had to scratch the itch. Over the past 12 months, we’ve been working to expand Enness' service lines to serve HNWI in new ways. To this end, Enness now offers brokerage services for corporate finance, commercial, bridging and development finance as well as portfolio finance. We are looking forward to launching private debt and crypto finance brokerage services next year - big things are coming!

As well as expanding our product offering, we moved to new Mayfair offices in September. As a business, we love to be at the heart of the action in central London. The move gives us more space to accommodate our growing team! We have also welcomed new faces to the Enness team with four key hires this year:

Zara Akbar joined us in January as Head of Securities-backed Lending. Before joining Enness, Zara worked for international banks, family offices, and hedge funds. There was no summer lull for Zara and in August, she successfully brokered a $150 million loan against a single line of stock - Enness’ largest-ever transaction.

Scott Monks, a Chartered Banker, came on board over the summer as Head of Corporate Finance. Scott has been involved in the debt market for 16 years, and he will expand our corporate finance offering to private companies, business owners, and entrepreneurs.

Based in our Geneva office, Frezy Anklesaria joined us in October as Head of Strategic Partnerships in Geneva. Frezy has fifteen years of experience in private banking, having lived and worked in London, Singapore, Dubai, and India, and is passionate about real estate and deal structuring.

As well as operating out of Geneva, 2021 also saw us set up a Zurich presence. Simon Everett joined us as head of Enness’ Zurich office. Simon has significant experience in commercial and residential real estate, investment, asset management, and financing in the UK, Switzerland, and across Europe.

All that’s left to do is wish you all a very happy and restful end of the year. In particular, I hope to see many more of you in person in 2022!