The two most powerful warriors are patience and time

Leo Tolstoy

Woodsford 509 R Web

As an independent family firm, we are free to embrace a truly long-term approach to investment. And that’s central to our mission: to build lasting value by giving enterprises the time to grow, the space to breathe and the support to thrive.

Woodsford Consulting was established to oversee and administer the investments of a family with deep roots in Britain and France. Today, over 25 years later, Woodsford Consulting remains a family-owned business consultancy.

Woodsford’s clients are long-term investors with a proven commitment to supporting entrepreneurialism. They do this in two ways: by putting private capital to work into opportunities that are poorly supported by traditional banking; and by nurturing businesses along their journey towards sustainable success, providing strategic advice and business infrastructure.

Woodsford also provides advice and support to client philanthropic activities. We have a team of 12 based in London, with particular expertise in financial services, real estate, and accounting and management.

Case Studies

Case
Studies
Real Estate
DOM Development
Woodsford Woning

DOM Development

DOM Development SA is Poland’s largest housebuilder with businesses in Warsaw, Gdansk and Wroclaw. With annual turnover of around £300m, Dom Development now builds and sells 4,000 homes each year.
Dom was founded in the mid-1990s by a team of entrepreneurs led by Yves Bonavero. They could see that Poland, emerging from the cold war, was in dire need of new and better housing stock to replace the poor-quality soviet-era accommodation. Dom was founded to meet that need. The company brought western European house-building quality standards into Poland and its homes became a byword for design and quality.
Dom floated on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2006 and has remained listed ever since, although the founding family retains significant control. It has built several tens of thousands of quality new homes in Poland is firmly established as the leading housebuilder in the country.

Woodsford Woning

Woodsford Woning is a real estate holding company specialising in residential real estate in the Amsterdam-Rotterdam area. In the aftermath of Brexit, the WW management team felt that the greater Amsterdam area could emerge as a major European beneficiary, as financial services firms in London migrated all or some of their activities onto the continent. On the basis that real estate demand would rise as a consequence, the WW team assembled a portfolio of individual properties, with funding support from local banks. Significant refurbishments were also undertaken to add value to the portfolio.

The portfolio is now rented out and will be held by the investors for the long-term.

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Financial Services
Tradebridge
Woodsford Capital Management
Woodsford Group

Tradebridge

TradeBridge is a fintech lender headquartered in the UK with offices in France and Singapore. Founded in 2013 it has completed over $3bn of transactions to date and is growing strongly. TradeBridge designs and provides financing fit for a faster-moving world. Its mission is to help forward-thinking, entrepreneurial business leaders seize their growth opportunities, by providing a range of flexible working capital solutions. TradeBridge uses real-time data-enriched credit assessment tools to provide impactful new funding to its client. TradeBridge employs a multinational, multilingual team across its offices in London, Paris, and Singapore, specialising in technology, finance, and business development.

Woodsford Capital Management

WCM is a Singapore-based registered fund management company. Its principal activity is to manage the Woodsford Foundation Strategy, a systematic ETF investment strategy with c.US$150m AUM (at Jan 2021). WCM builds investment strategies around three core pillars: a long-term investment time-frame, keeping costs low, and a systematic approach to trading. Underpinning all three pillars is WCM’s evidentialist philosophy. In the worlds of British philosopher William Clifford, “It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.” Since its founding in 2009, WCM has applied this demanding and rigorous standard to all aspects of its investment management activities.

Woodsford Group

Founded in 2010, as Woodsford Litigation Funding now Woodsford Group is one of London’s oldest and most established commercial litigation funders as well as being a founder member of the Association of Litigation Funders.
WG was founded to help smaller enterprises facing the prospect of commercial litigation against deep-pocketed Fortune 500 defendants. By levelling the financial playing field, WG aims to improve access to justice. WG’s shareholders have committed more than $100m to support funding activities including both as equity and as a dedicated $75m funding facility. The business has a diversified, international portfolio of cases including international arbitration, high court litigation and intellectual property, while we also provide capital directly to support contingency law firms. WG currently has offices in London, Singapore and the United States, and employs a growing, multinational team of finance and legal professionals.

Philanthropy
A B Charitable Trust

A B Charitable Trust

The A B Charitable Trust is an independent grant-making organisation, founded in 1990 by Yves and Anne Bonavero to champion human dignity and support marginalised and excluded groups. The Trust gives £7m each year and focuses on the priority areas of migrants and refugees; the justice system and penal reform; human rights and access to justice. The A B Charitable Trust is managed by a professional full-time staff, with additional business infrastructure support provided by Woodsford Consulting. For its 25th anniversary in 2015, the Trust made a gift to establish the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University.

Our story so far

Woodsford is founded by Yves Bonavero with his associate Richard Lewis. The office is two desks pushed together in the basement of Yves’ family home in Woodsford Square, west London.

1992

Swipe me
1992

In the depth of a recession, Woodsford launches its first venture: Woodsford Commercial Properties. It buys a portfolio of unloved commercial premises across England and Scotland and with investment over subsequent years, the properties are improved and values rise as the economy recovers.

1993

1994

Woodsford advises on the launch of a new bank, Kensington Mortgages. It grows strongly and subsequently floats on the London Stock Exchange in 2000.


Having outgrown the family-home basement, Woodsford moves to its first (real) office, on nearby Addison Avenue.

1996

Woodsford sponsors and advised on investments in Poland, which will in time become a major centre of activity for the group. 100 hectares of Greenfield land west of Warsaw is acquired and development begins to transform it into Europa Park, a major logistics, rail, and distribution hub at the heart of Central Europe.

1996

Woodsford advises on the launch of Dom Development, a residential developer active in the Warsaw area. With the Polish economy entering a transformative post-cold war boom, the potential for growth is compelling.

Woodsford backs a management team to launch a new long-short equity hedge fund in Hong Kong, Doric Capital. The fund is a pioneer and grows strongly.

2000

2000

2006

Dom Development successfully floats on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. Today it is the largest residential developer in Eastern Europe, building over 4,000 homes each year.

2006

Woodsford Grupa begins to acquire land holdings along Croatia's stunning Adriatic coast, for future resort and villa development.

2006 1
2006 2

Woodsford identifies the opportunity to invest in residential real estate in Berlin and Leipzig, entering the market on the premise of the continued growth of the post-unification German economy. A portfolio of some 389 units across 30 buildings is identified and acquired.

Having outgrown the Addison Avenue office, Woodsford moves to larger premises off Westbourne Grove, where it will stay for the next 10 years.

2008

2008

Europa Park, by now Poland’s leading logistics and distribution hub, is sold to a middle eastern sovereign wealth fund.

2008 1

2010

Woodsford Capital Management, a specialist asset manager, is founded in Singapore. In time, it will launch the Woodsford Foundation Strategy, a systematic low-cost investment strategy, and establish itself as a leading Singapore ETF manager.

Woodsford Capital Logo
2010
2010 1

Woodsford Litigation Funding in founded. It will become one the leading firms specialising in legal finance, with offices around the world.

Koffi

2013

Woodsford TradeBridge is founded, a fintech lender whose mission is to finance the growth of innovative, underbanked enterprises around the world.

2013

The AB Charitable Trust, the Bonavero family’s charitable arm, turns 25 years old, and marks this by endowing the new Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University.

2015

Woodsford backs up-and-coming UK housebuilder Sigma Homes, providing fresh capital for expansion.

2016

2016

2019

Woodsford5

Woodsford Woning is launched, to acquire a portfolio of residential properties in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and the Hague.

2018

The company has by now outgrown Monmouth House and moves to larger premises in central London, at 8 Bloomsbury Street.

2018
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Our team

Our business is a partnership between the family and colleagues, with everyone fairly rewarded for their contribution to our collective success. We benefit greatly from the talent, skills and commitment of our colleagues. In return, the family provides a stable, empowering work environment. Our shared values, combined with the freedom and autonomy we afford colleagues, enables them to be more involved in the business, and in doing so, to flourish.

Yves Bonavero

Yves Bonavero

Chairman

Yves Bonavero was born and educated in Paris. He holds a First-Class Honours degree in Philosophy and German, as well as an MA, from Oxford University. Yves started his business career with Man Group and became CEO in 1987.

In 1996, Yves founded in Poland Dom Development, listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange since 2006, which currently develops over 4,000 homes a year, and Europa Park, the country’s premier logistics and distribution centre. Yves is the chairman of Woodsford Consulting Ltd, which he founded in 1996. In 2010, he founded Woodsford Group Ltd which holds corporations to account for ESG breaches.

In 1990, together with his wife Anne, he established the A B Charitable Trust to promote human dignity and defend the human rights of marginalised and excluded people. The charity, which Yves chaired for thirty-three years, ranks among the UK’s top 50 grant making foundations and in 2015 endowed the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights at Oxford University.

Yves’s first novel, Something in the Sea, was published by Bloomsbury in 2006; his second, The Nuremberg Enigma, followed in 2016.

In September 2023, Yves was awarded by the Open University the honorary degree of Doctor of the University in recognition of his Public Services and the exceptional contribution he made to championing human dignity.

Philippe Bonavero

Philippe Bonavero

Director

Philippe’s professional background is as a barrister. He is a board member of several group -companies, as well as chair of the Grants Committee and Board of Directors of the A B Charitable Trust.

Jonathan Barnes

Jonathan Barnes

Director

Jonathan’s role combines his broad legal and business knowledge to understand, prioritise and provide ways to ensure Woodsford and its clients achieve their goals.

Thomas Porter

Thomas Porter

Managing Director

Thomas joined Woodsford in 2008 and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the company, as well as providing strategic and investment advice to clients. He sits on the boards of a number of group companies and is a CFA Charterholder.

Olivier Bonavero

Olivier Bonavero

Director

Olly has been an investment and financial services professional for over 20 years. At Woodsford, Olly’s role is to provide strategic advice to clients. He sits on the boards of a number of group companies and is the treasurer of the A B Charitable Trust.

Margaret Braksal

Margaret Braksal

Group Accountant

Margaret has been a member of Woodsford team for many years. Initially involved in group operations in Poland, she is responsible for liaising with clients and service providers, to manage the preparation and review of financial statements for many group companies, in numerous jurisdictions. Margaret holds an ACCA Fellowship.

Szabina Popa

Szabina Popa

Consultant

Szabina joined Woodsford in January 2020, and her broad role involves looking after the Chairman and the Executives, organising events, and various project management roles across the group.

Duncan Spence

Duncan Spence

Financial Controller

Duncan joined Woodsford in 2019 and manages the accounts and controls for Woodsford Consulting along with several the larger group companies, including the AB Charitable Trust. Duncan qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2014.

Minaxi Bhudia

Minaxi Bhudia

Management Accountant

Minaxi has over 10 years’ experience in the finance sector. She joined Woodsford in October 2017 and has since been looking after the bookkeeping to management accounts, Payroll and HR for several group companies.

Kamila Serrano

Kamila Serrano

Office Manager

Sophie Bonavero

Sophie Bonavero

Head of Real Estate

Having spent the past 25 years living and working in France and The Netherlands, Sophie has recently relocated to the UK, bringing an international touch to the team. Having structured and successfully managed a large residential property portfolio in The Netherlands, Sophie is responsible for advising Woodsford's clients on their real estate investments.

Jonathan Askham

Jonathan Askham

Investment Finance Manager

Jonny joined Woodsford in October 2020. He carries out investment appraisals and provides financial reporting and analysis to a range of group companies, with a particular focus on real estate investments. Jonny is a Chartered Management Accountant.

Woodsford Consulting

8 Bloomsbury St
Bloomsbury
London WC1B 3SR

020 7313 8070