Portsmouth: NatWest funds Old Thorns

NatWest has won the banking business of hotelier Martin Shaw and has provided significant funding for the £6m development of his most recent project, Old Thorns Golf Hotel & Country Estate.

Situated in 400 acres of Hampshire’s countryside and a previous home to Ken Wood, founder of Kenwood Manufacturing, Old Thorns was purchased early in 2007. Martin Shaw acquired the hotel in Liphook as a 33-bed accommodation, golf course, conference centre and spa with onsite restaurants and fitness centre. With a vast experience of building, developing and selling large hotels in the Norwich area, Martin purchased Old Thorns with plans to significantly refurbish and expand the hotel into an 88-bed accommodation with extensive facilities. He was looking for a bank that could financially support these plans and turned to RBS.

Martin Shaw, Owner, Old Thorns Golf Hotel & Country Estate, said: “We are well underway with a massive refurbishment and development project and we have already opened the new accommodation block. The improvements we’ve made to the existing facilities – the Health Club, wedding facilities, golf course, restaurants and bar – will all help us to provide the very highest standards for our guests and staff. RBS are helping to fund the development and I’d like to thank our relationship manager, Neil Drinkwater and the team for really understanding our plans and structuring the funding to reflect them.”

Neil Drinkwater, senior relationship manager, RBS, added: “Old Thorns is situated in a great location in Hampshire, two minutes from the main London to Portsmouth A3 road with direct rail links to London and Portsmouth. The complete overhaul of the site is very impressive and we were really pleased to be able to offer a funding package that suited Martin’s exact plans having built a close working relationship over the past two years.”