The Commercial Finance arm of the listed specialist Secure Trust Bank has seen lending balances recover strongly towards the end of 2020, closing at £230.7m.
While the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has been an eight per cent fall on the £251.7m seen in the 12 months to December 2019, the firm saw strong growth in the final quarter of 2020. This was driven by the firm’s continued support of SMEs through a combination of new clients and expansion of existing client facilities, including the provision of the CBILS and CLBILS loan schemes.
In total, Secure Trust Bank provided more than £50m to businesses across the country as part of the loan schemes, and became one of the first alternative lenders accredited for the larger CLBILS facility. Since being accredited for both schemes, the firm has been working closely with companies across numerous sectors to provide financial support, ensuring they can maintain relationships with suppliers and plan for recovery.
The final quarter also saw the firm complete its largest deal since being founded in 2014 – a £50m working capital facility provided to British Steel to enable the business to expand production and sales. Other transactions over the year include a £16m confidential invoicing package to dash cam manufacturer Nextbase, designed to facilitate domestic and international growth, as well as supporting the takeover of publishing house Archant by private equity firm Rcapital with a £5m facility.
The Commercial Finance division of the FTSE-listed bank provides a full-suite of flexible asset-based lending and invoice finance products, ranging in size from £3m to £50m, for both SME’s and larger businesses.
Originally established in 2014, the lender now operates across the country with offices in Leeds, Birmingham, London and Manchester. Using its network of regional offices, the team at Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance works closely with management teams to provide flexible asset-based lending solutions tailored to each business.
Paul Johnston, regional managing director for the North West at Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance, said: “In what has been an extremely challenging year for SMEs across the UK, accessing the finance to survive and grow has perhaps been the biggest concern. Our focus from day one of the pandemic has been on supporting our clients with flexible and tailored funding packages, including the provision of government support schemes.
“As the world reopens for business in 2021, we’re anticipating a significant resurgence in appetite from companies looking to take advantage of growth opportunities. We have seen during the pandemic that lenders have needed to be innovative with their funding structures to achieve the best outcomes, and we will continue to do this to support the recovery.”
