LDF, a non-bank alternative finance provider, and the British Business Bank have agreed a £51m facility to increase access to asset finance for small businesses
The transaction, which is 50% guaranteed by the European Investment Fund, is the second of the British Business Bank’s Enable Funding programme, which aims to significantly increase the supply of leasing and asset finance to smaller businesses in the UK. It follows a £100m facility provided to Hitachi Capital (UK) Ltd in October 2015.
The Enable Funding programme, which has been developed as an aggregation vehicle, will allow LDF to expand substantially its provision of asset finance to smaller businesses.
Peter Alderson, managing director, LDF, said: ‘Access to finance, particularly for asset procurement, remains a critical barrier to success for many smaller businesses and making this more readily available is something that we are behind fully.
‘We already deliver significant support to this sector, providing over £40m of finance in January alone. With strong ongoing support from our shareholder, Cabot Square Capital and our recent acquisition asset finance specialist, First Independent Finance (FIF), we have very ambitious plans for growing our presence in the SME market.
‘The combination of LDF’s scale and stature, teamed with the strong asset finance heritage of FIF increase both our geographical presence and our potential client base. We now have over 5,000 clients and this facility will enable us to grow that base and also provide a higher level of support to a significant proportion of that client base.’
Reinald de Monchy, managing director, wholesale solutions at the British Business Bank, said: ‘This second transaction in the Enable Funding programme will further boost the availability of asset finance for businesses across the UK. We are particularly pleased to be able to be working with LDF, which is a high-growth lender, to help it expand its funding programme.
‘We now have provided two facilities totalling £151m and we anticipate further transactions throughout 2016. Our intention remains for these facilities to be refinanced through the capital markets once we achieve a required critical mass of circa £300m or more.’
Further information about LDF’s asset finance solutions