A financial services group which specialises in home-loans to the self-employed is being put up for sale after seven years in private equity ownership.

Sky News has learnt that Kensington Mortgages and its backers have hired Morgan Stanley, the Wall Street bank, to oversee an auction of the business.

City sources said that the process, which has yet to formally get underway, could lead to a break-up of Kensington with separate buyers for its mortgage portfolios and the platform which services customers.

The company has been owned by Blackstone and Sixth Street – which was previously part of TPG, another private equity group – since 2014, when they took Kensington Group private.

Run by Mark Arnold, a former GE Capital executive, Kensington briefly changed its name to Northview but subsequently reverted to its former identity.

It is one of the largest issuers in the residential mortgage-backed securities market, having issued £12bn of mortgages since 2015.

Previously owned by Investec, Kensington is likely to attract interest from other banks while its mortgage books are likely to draw bids from yield-hungry fund managers.

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As well as the self-employed, it specialises in mortgage lending to the over-55s and consumers with multiple incomes.

The valuation of Kensington being targeted by its shareholders was unclear on Wednesday evening.

Kensington and Blackstone declined to comment.

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