Following a period of intensive growth by its industrial, energy, and natural resources businesses, Liberty House, and SIMEC, Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance, has now launched a financial services arm, Wyelands Capital, and appointed a former senior UK regulator to help direct the new enterprise.
The creation of Wyelands Capital, follows Sanjeev’s acquisition in December 2016 of Wyelands Bank PLC, which has been launched as an ‘industry-friendly’ deposit-taking institution focused on providing working capital solutions for UK and international companies.
Among those appointed to the advisory board of Wyelands Capital is Paul Sharma, former deputy head of the Prudential Regulation Authority (“PRA”) and Executive Director of the Bank of England. Mr Sharma is also the Managing Director for regulatory advice at global practice, Alvarez and Marsal.
During its initial phase, Wyelands Capital will deliver structured finance and capital markets expertise to the GFG Alliance with a view to serving wider markets later on.
Also joining the Wyelands Capital advisory board are Roland Fisher, former Banco Santander international senior legal counsel and Suresh Advani, who has previously has held senior positions at the ICC Banking Commission, JP Morgan Chase and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein. Mr Sharma will serve in an advisory capacity on regulatory matters, while Mr Fisher becomes general legal counsel on the executive management team, and Mr Advani will lead GFG’s investment activity in the area of financial services.
Jay Hambro, who is chief executive of Wyelands Capital and Chief Investment Officer of the GFG Alliance, said: “Wyelands Bank is already filling a very important gap in the market for working capital solutions. Through Wyelands Capital, the GFG Alliance is determined to engage the best and most experienced figures from the financial services sector, in order to establish a powerful presence in the financial services market and make a real difference to the growth prospects of industry in the UK and globally.”