Funding Demand On The Increase
Having offices in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Galway is of immense benefit to clients, says Paul Stephens of lender Close Brothers Commercial Finance. “We work as a single team supporting businesses in either territory, especially those operating cross-border,” he explains.
Parent company Close Brothers Group is listed on the FTSE250 with a loan book that totalled £9.2bn at December 31 2022. In Ireland, Close Brothers had an income of £33.8m and pre-tax profit of £19.6m at July 31 2022. “We have about €1bn worth of lending into the Irish SME community,” says Stephens, Head of Corporate & Asset Based Lending at Close Brothers.
“We offer asset-based lending that enables businesses to release working capital trapped on their balance sheets. We provide finance for new assets
and also funding to release equity in existing assets through sale and HPback. In addition, we can also release equity tied up in working capital assets such as inventory and debtors in the form of invoice discounting. Our offering is augmented by term loans for property and cash flow loans.”
According to Stephens, demand for funding increased over the latter part of last year and into the new year, with most growth seen in logistics, recruitment and manufacturing, especially food and food-grade ingredients. “Logistics funding has been very busy because recent supply chain issues mean there is a lot more inventory being held on a just-in-case basis rather than the more traditional just-in-time,” Stephens adds.
“We have also noticed increased demand for finance as businesses seek to complete acquisitions which may have stalled during the pandemic. We have historically demonstrated that we lend throughout the cycle, and we continue to support businesses across the island, when they need it most.”