Tory donor Henry Angest’s £115m profit from selling high-interest loan firm

The Conservative Party has been intimately associated with other controversial high-interest lenders

Henry Angest provided a £5m ‘overdraft facility’ for the Conservatives’ 2010 election campaign

A bank controlled by a major Tory donor has made a £115m profit by offloading its controversial high-interest loan company.

Henry Angest, a friend of David Cameron and a former Tory treasurer, has a 55 per cent stake in the Arbuthnot Banking Group, which yesterday sold its unsecured loans firm, Everyday Loans, to Non-Standard Finance for £235m.

Swiss-born Mr Angest, who is chairman and chief executive of Arbuthnot, gave the Conservatives a £5m overdraft facility shortly before the 2010 general election. AIM-listed Arbuthnot said it expects to realise a post-tax profit on the sale of not less than £115m.

Everyday Loans, which has 27 branches nationwide, advertises loans of up to £12,500 with an interest rate of 74.8 per cent APR. That’s much less than the 1,509 per cent rate charged by Wonga, but still well in excess of the loan rates offered by mainstream banks. Everyday Loans services people with low incomes and poor credit histories and is estimated to be the UK’s 11th largest high-interest lender by turnover.

The Conservative Party has been intimately associated with other controversial high-interest lenders. Adrian Beecroft, who has a major stake in Wonga, has donated to the Conservatives and was made an adviser in the last Parliament. Jonathan Luff, a former senior adviser to David Cameron, left Downing Street to become a Wonga lobbyist.

Non-Standard Finance, which according to Arbuthnot made an “unsolicited approach” for Everyday Loans, is run by the former Provident chairman John van Kuffeler and is backed by the high-profile fund manager Neil Woodford. It floated in February.