Investec Private Bank in London is targeting finance directors of UK public companies with a lending facility that will allow them to borrow money to acquire or increase a strategic stake in a listed company. Alternatively, they can use this service to raise liquidity against shares they hold that they cannot or do not wish to sell, allowing them to reduce risk by diversifying wealth into other assets. In most cases, Investec’s shareholder finance service involves lending facilities for over £1 million ($1.95 million). To date, the bank has been targeting chief executives and founders of public quoted companies with this service, but given the growing wealth of finance directors, it is now focusing on them as well. David Drewienka said: “Our strategic shareholder finance service has enjoyed strong growth. Many finance directors have considerable wealth tied up in the companies they work for and this is expected to grow, which should make our service all the more relevant and interesting to them.” Investec Private Bank expects demand for specialised finance from senior executives of quoted companies to grow for a number of reasons: senior executives within quoted companies are seeing the amount of wealth they have tied up in the companies they work for grow dramatically, but much of this is illiquid; remuneration committees are increasingly favouring long-term incentive plans for senior executives; certain mid-cap and AIM companies are fundamentally undervalued and attractive to investors seeking a strategic stake; there is a growing willingness from senior executives and significant shareholders to be more creative in how they protect and grow their wealth.