The private equity group which rescued the Kent Reliance has cashed out part of its investment, raising £95 million.

New York-based JC Flowers has offloaded about 10% of its shares in OneSavings Bank, retaining about a 9% stake.

It created the Chatham-based lender after buying the Kent Reliance Building Society in 2011, saving it with a £50 million cash injection.

Kent Reliance had been haemorrhaging cash as a result of bad mortgage lending, which crippled the firm during the global financial crisis which began in 2008.

Along with a number of other acquisitions, JC Flowers formed OneSavings Bank which it floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2014.

Back then, it sold 32.5% of its stake in the lender, which has since increased its value by more than 140% to over £1 billion.

Its share price has increased by more than 20% in the last year.

OneSavings Bank has retained the Kent Reliance brand – and kept its headquarters in the county – with a focus on the buy-to-let market.

JC Flowers sold 24.3 million shares for 390p per share in an offering handled by Citigroup and Credit Suisse.

In November, OneSavings Bank reported a 17% increase in its loan book in the third quarter of the year to £6.9 billion.

The private equity group which rescued the Kent Reliance has cashed out part of its investment, raising £95 million.New York-based JC Flowers has offloaded about 10% of its shares in OneSavings Bank, retaining about a 9% stake.It created the Chatham-based lender after buying the Kent Reliance Building Society in 2011, saving it with a £50 million cash injection.