Kensington Mortgages has announced the completion of its sale to Barclays Bank.

Barclays has acquired the specialist mortgage lender from companies controlled by funds managed by Blackstone Tactical Opportunities and funds affiliated with Sixth Street, which jointly owned the business since 2015. The acquisition allows Barclays to become one of the few major banks with a specialist mortgage offering.

Kensington, which is based in Maidenhead, has around 600 employees and originated approximately £1.9bn of mortgages – including retentions – in the year ended 31 March 2022.

The business is recognised in the industry for having a market-leading data and technology platform, which has facilitated profitable growth, product innovation and exceptional loan underwriting performance.

As part of the acquisition, all of Kensington’s employees will become part of the wider Barclays Group and Kensington will continue day-to-day business operations as usual. The business will retain its brand and be a largely standalone business, but now also benefit from the financial strength, deposit funding base and operational reach of Barclays as it looks to continue its journey of growth and innovation to support a range of borrowers with complex incomes.

Mark Arnold, CEO of Kensington, commented: “This marks the start of an exciting new chapter of growth for Kensington. We have a strong track-record in the specialist mortgage space, using our proprietary technology, data analytics and human insights to design innovative products and make lending decisions to serve our customer base – the self-employed and those with multiple or variable incomes.

“As a major UK bank with a broad reach and offering, Barclays is well-placed to support our expansion. We look forward to working with them closely to bring our propositions to a wider range of individuals across the UK. And as we enter this new chapter, we would like to thank Blackstone and Sixth Street for all their support and investment over the last eight years.”