BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital portfolio company Shawbrook Group (“Shawbrook” or “the Company”) priced its initial public offering (“IPO”) on the London Stock Exchange on 30 October 2025 at 370 pence per share, and closed at 395 pence at the end of the first day trading, valuing the Company at just over £2bn. The IPO, which was executed via a placing to institutional and retail investors, was multiple times oversubscribed and represents the largest public offering by a domestic firm on the London Stock Exchange since 2021.
Since acquiring Shawbrook in July 2017 in a public-to-private transaction, BC Partners and Pollen Street Capital have transformed the company into a leading UK digital banking and specialist lending platform. Over this period, Shawbrook has tripled in size to reach a loan book of £17 billion as of June 2025, with profit after tax and tangible net asset value also approximately tripling.
The growth and success of the Company over this period has been underpinned by a value creation playbook focused on deep investment in technology – more than £260 million of investment in digital capabilities since 2017 – targeted M&A, and attracting a highly capable and experienced management team, led by CEO Marcelino Castrillo. These initiatives have seen the company evolve from its roots in specialist lending to a diversified, technology-led business serving commercial and retail customers across the UK and have supported a compound annual growth rate of 15% in underlying profit after tax.
Supported by BC Partners and Pollen Street, Shawbrook has also completed numerous strategic add-on acquisitions to accelerate its growth and expand its capabilities. Most recently, this includes the acquisition of ThinCats Group Limited – a leading specialist lender with a strong track record in providing bespoke funding to established, growth-focused SMEs. The ThinCats acquisition represents a strategic investment in accelerating Shawbrook’s presence in the specialist SME lending market, underlining Shawbrook’s commitment to supporting UK SMEs with highly tailored finance facilities and relationship-led service.
Cédric Dubourdieu, Partner, BC Partners said: “Yesterday’s successful listing is testament to the quality of the Shawbrook business and the exceptional management team who have led its growth. In partnership with Marcelino, the Shawbrook team, and Pollen Street, we have been able to truly transform the business with a focus on digitalisation and technology, resulting in the rapid growth of the company in the past few years. We are proud to support Shawbrook’s return to the public market as a strong, diversified banking platform, and we look forward to supporting the team in this next phase of its journey.”
Marcelino Castrillo, CEO of Shawbrook added: “The transformation of Shawbrook over the past decade has only been possible because of the strong partnership we’ve enjoyed with Pollen Street and BC Partners. Their support and challenge have helped us to shape and accelerate our strategy as we’ve built Shawbrook into a leading digital banking platform. I’m grateful for their continued backing and look forward to continuing to work together as we take Shawbrook into its next chapter as a listed business.”
ENDS
BC Partners
BC Partners is a leading investment firm with circa €40 billion in assets under management across private equity, private debt, and real estate strategies. Established in 1986, BC Partners has played an active role for nearly four decades in developing the European buyout market. Today BC Partners’ integrated transatlantic investment teams work from offices in Europe and North America and are aligned across our four core sectors: TMT, Healthcare, Services & Industrials, and Food. Since its foundation, BC Partners has completed over 130 private equity investments and is currently investing its eleventh private equity buyout fund.
Shawbrook
Shawbrook provides finance to a broad and diverse range of customer segments, each of which values the flexibility, speed and certainty we deliver. Shawbrook combines sophisticated underwriting, multi-channel distribution and next-generation technology and data capabilities to create a platform that delivers high-growth and high-returns while supporting our customers’ ambitions. With a diversified product suite, we serve carefully selected Commercial and Retail markets, from complex structured credit facilities for growth-focused businesses to mortgages for professional landlords and property investors, as well as motor finance for high-end vehicles. The Group’s lending activities are primarily funded by a stable retail deposit book consisting of easy access and ISA accounts, variable rate notice accounts and fixed rate fixed term accounts (typically one to five years). Shawbrook Bank Limited is an operating entity of Shawbrook Group plc. Shawbrook Bank Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority and is a member of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
