Shawbrook completes acquisition of ThinCats

Shawbrook Bank has completed its acquisition of alternative finance provider ThinCats.  

ThinCats established its healthcare division in 2020 and focuses on providing support for mid-size SMEs. Its clients include Inspire, E-zec Medical, Partnering Health Ltd and ABL Health.

Shawbrook said the deal would accelerate its growth in the specialist SME lending market. ThinCats will continue to operate as an independent brand as part of the Shawbrook portfolio.

Shawbrook’s SME lending arm, which focuses on growth-oriented and established businesses, accounted for around 21% of the group’s loan book at 30 June 2025. The division reported higher activity levels than a year earlier across its markets, with both new lending and pipeline volumes ahead of the first half of 2024

The acquisition includes a projected loan book of c.£0.7bn with corresponding risk weighted assets of c.£0.6bn. The transaction is expected to be earnings per share accretive in the first full financial year post completion.

Commenting on the deal, Shawbrook CEO Marcelino Castrillo said: ‘ThinCats is a leading UK FinTech with an excellent track record of delivering bespoke funding to growth-focused SMEs, whose owners, management teams and sponsors value speed, flexibility and certainty.

‘This acquisition will serve to further scale-up and deepen our presence in the very large and growing SME market. The ThinCats proposition will continue to compete and offer choice in the market, whilst the Shawbrook platform will allow us to scale the brand more efficiently and serve even more UK SMEs with highly tailored funding solutions.’