Features                            

Bank Leumi (UK) plc – Jonathan Watson
20 Stratford Place
London W1C 1BG
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7907 8067
E-mail: jwatson@bankleumi.co.uk
www.bankleumi.co.uk

As a relationship focused bank we provide comprehensive trade finance and commodity finance facilities which, either on a standalone basis or when combined with those our asset-based lending team at Leumi ABL, provide customers with a comprehensive funding and risk management service.

We offer flexibility of approach, based on our extensive knowledge of trade finance and an understanding of the markets in which our clients operate. Our relationship managers help structure facilities which assist in financing trade and which help to mitigate counterparty default and foreign exchange risks – key issues which are particularly relevant in the current economic environment.

We offer a full range of services including foreign exchange, letters of credit, guarantees, stock and trade debtor finance, together with cash management through our internet banking service – Leumi online. Facility levels generally start at £1m.

Having operated in the UK trade finance market for over 100 years we have unparalleled experience to draw on. Our excellent international trade services team provides a vital interface with each client, with emphasis on quality of service, sound advice and speed of execution.

Contact Jon Watson or Terry Harris to find out how we can help with all aspects of international trade finance.

Key personnel:
Jonathan Watson – head of trade finance
E-mail: jwatson@bankleumi.co.uk
Terry Harris – senior relationship manager
E-mail: tharris@bank leumi.co.uk

Bibby Financial Services
Trade Services – Paul Tappin
Packington House: 3-4 Horse Fair
Banbury
Oxfordshire
OX16 0AA
Tel: 0800 919592
Fax: +44 (0) 1295 221099
www.bibbyfinancialservices.com

Paul Tappin, product manager at Bibby Financial Services reflects on 2008 and why he feels that growth is achievable in 2009 for its Trade Services division.

Established in 1999, our Trade Services business has gone from strength-to-strength over the years. 2008 has seen a 22% increase on annual income, and a recruitment drive to bolster and promote our bespoke products both to business intermediaries and the small and medium-sized business markets. With a strong growth strategy firmly in place, we expect to see continued growth in the coming year.

Bibby Financial Services’ real advantage in 2009 will be combining the forces of our specialist import/export finance division with international logistics to offer a truly unique freight and finance package. This will allow our UK clients to trade internationally with the confidence that funding and freight is secure despite today’s liquidity issues.

Our offering is simple yet effective. Providing our clients with what is essentially a one-stop-shop solution for buying and selling goods with simplified processes and a single point of contact managing client transactions from start to finish. Doing business with Bibby Financial Services has never been easier.

Our established team ensures clients receive a financial solution tailored to their own individual requirements including the funding of transportation costs, VAT and duties as well as access to whole turnover, selective and confidential facilities. We are in a good position to weather the current economic storm and see our trade-related products becoming integral in small and medium-sized businesses’ funding requirements.

All this considered, the team is braced for another busy if not hectic year which will see us build on the strong platform developed over the last couple of years and capitalise on growth seen in 2008. Bibby Financial Services is very much open for business and will continue to provide innovative funding solutions to small and medium-sized businesses across the globe. We are more prepared than ever to embrace the challenges and opportunities that operating in this market brings and so, as I look to 2009, it is with great excitement for what we can achieve.

Davenham – Clive Naylor
PO Box 765
8 St John Street
Manchester
M60 2WR
Tel: +44 (0) 161 832 8484
Fax: +44 (0) 161 834 5831
www.davenham.co.uk

Founded 1991, floated on AIM in 2005, Davenham Group plc specialises in import finance, invoice finance and asset-based lending. Being one of the UK’s leading independent ABL providers, Davenham offer asset-backed loans of up to £3.25m that are specifically designed to meet the financing needs of the SME.

Our Trade Finance division provides complete working capital funding packages to importers, wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers; (including import finance, invoice finance, stock finance and P&M loans).

Our major advantage over other lenders is the ability to fund stock. Davenhams roots were founded in the import finance market, providing solutions to SME’s working capital requirements. This entrepreneurial spirit is still evident today as the group seeks innovative solutions when providing funding against a companies asset pool.

To ensure our clients have the answers to their cashflow requirements, we offer our popular invoice finance product as a funding and cash collection tool. This in turn creates a push-pull effect on cashflow and ensures that all importing clients have the correct funding arrangements secured against the right assets, so to trade their business efficiently.

Our unique funding proposition has extended to IFA practices. Davenham’s award winning IFA Finance enables IFA’s to leverage against their trail income for re-finance or M&A.

Specialties:
Import and invoice finance, ABL, turnaround propositions, IFA loans, integrated stock funding (combining warehousing and logistics capabilities).
National coverage from strategically placed offices in the UK.

Product range:

• trade/import finance – finance for importers of finished goods. It is designed to help companies which have sourced and sold the products but need cash to make the deal happen;
   
• invoice discounting and factoring – a full suite of products including: factoring, CHOCCS, disclosed and confidential invoice discounting;
   
• IFA Loan – an innovative award winning scheme to allow independent financial advisors to borrow against their trail/renewal commissions to fund acquisitions and growth;
   
• structured finance – a range of facilities secured and structured against all assets on the balance sheet, including debtors, plant and stock; and
   
• integrated stock funding – ability to offer warehousing and distribution as part of an integrated import, invoice and stock finance package.

Key personnel:
Neil McGivern – divisional director
E-mail: neilmcgivern@davenham.co.uk
Clive Naylor – sales director
E-mail: clivenaylor@davenham.co.uk

Gower House Associates – Robin Smith
Gower House
7 Lambridge Wood Road
Henley-on-Thames
RG9 3BP
Tel: +44 (0) 1491 576008
Fax: +44 (0) 1491 410122
E-mail: rs@gowerhouseassociates.com
www.gowerhouseassociates.com

Gower House Associates LLP was started in 1983 and specialises in tailored solutions for trade finance, cross-border and working capital.

Over the years many, many facilities have been structured both within the UK, Europe and further afar. The common features are that solutions are based in one form or another on debtors or stock and our skill is to structure facilities to suit the particular client situation. We have a sister business Gower House Corporate Finance LLP which specialises in strategic support and all of our partners and associates have many years’ appropriate experience.
 
We are industry agnostic and to an extent able to deal with all sizes of enquiry although would prefer enquiry for facilities exceeding £1m with no upper limit. We are fiercely proud that we have been in business since 1983 and that should speak for itself.

Liquidity Import Finance (LIF) – Stuart Relton
Sixth Floor
Cavendish House
39-41 Waterloo Street
Birmingham
B2 5PP
Tel: +44 (0) 121 212 1112
Fax: +44 (0) 121 265 7711
E-mail: srelton@liquidity.co.uk
www.liquidity.co.uk

We have recently completed our third successful year and we are pleased to say we are very much open for business, despite the challenging year ahead of us.
 
The current global, economic and financial crisis means banks will have to take a prudent approach with existing and new credit facilities, especially for the SME sector. In the main, the £37bn banks’ bail out is to improve the banks’ reserves and this means small and medium-sized businesses will find it difficult to secure traditional finance.

At LIF we believe we have a significant role to play in providing much needed finance to SMEs who look to be competitive in the home and export markets. This is especially so as the manufacturing base in the UK is reducing by the week and SMEs will look to buy better priced finished goods from abroad to meet customer requirements.

LIF specialises in dealing with SMEs with sub £10m turnover and we pay our clients’ suppliers at home or abroad, for finished goods against the confirmed orders our clients have from their buyers.

We have several standalone purchase facility services to offer and we can also link into the invoice finance services offered by our parent, Liquidity Ltd. We have very good knowledge in most business sectors and we pride ourselves on our ability to really make a difference to our clients’ businesses.

Put simply, we have a one-stop-shop for SMEs.

We provide an excellent service to our clients and we are fleet of foot in responding to enquiries and completing deals for our new clients.

Our flexible approach to meeting the needs of our clients resulted in a 93% excellent service rating by our clients in 2008.

Our aim is to offer facilities between £40,000 and £300,000, although we can offer more under the right circumstances.

The team has over 40 years’ collective experience in trade finance and comprises Stuart Relton and Hugh Francis, directors, Paul Robbins, head of sales, Matt Rhind, senior account manager and Victoria Fitzsimons, account manager.

Whether you need ongoing or one-off financial help to pay suppliers for orders from single or multiple buyers, LIF will have the answer.

Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets
– Mario Mazzocchi
10 Gresham Street
London
EC2V 7AE
Phone: +44 (0) 20 7158 2579
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7158 3275
E-mail: mario.mazzocchi@lloydstsb.co.uk
www.lloydstsb.com/corporatemarkets

Structured Trade Finance at Lloyds TSB is a specialist trade finance team active in financing of strategic bulk commodities i.e. crude oil, non ferrous metals and selected soft grains (sugar, soya etc).

We are able to provide a comprehensive range of trade products which include:

• medium-term structured pre-export finance facilities;

• medium-term borrowing base facilities;

• short-term transactional bilateral working capital facilities;
  payment undertaking guarantees;

• and export credit agency facilities.

The team is led from London, but also has offices in Rotterdam, New York, Dubai and São Paulo.

Key personnel:
Mario Mazzocchi – head of structured trade finance.

Merchant Trade Finance – David Beale
Walton Lodge
Walton Street
Aylesbury
Buckinghamshire
HP21 7QY
Tel: +44 (0) 1296 436661
Fax: +44 (0) 1296 423041

Established in 1998, MTF is a subsidiary of the financial conglomerate, Lenlyn Group, which has diverse interests including International Currency Exchange plc (foreign exchange bureaux worldwide), Southern Finance Ltd (leasing and hire purchase ) CFX (Currency Exchange Dealing) and R Raphael & Sons plc (private banking).

MTF is primarily a selective trade financier providing import finance for finished goods against confirmed customer purchase orders for small to medium-sized companies. Full trade cycles may be financed by paying the supplier by letter of credit and obtaining repayment from invoiced net sale proceeds.

MTF has flexible products to supply joint venture agreements with factoring companies whereby MTF is repaid from customer invoice advances. MTF offers additional products in the form of bills of exchange finance to good net worth businesses.

MTF’s target market is small and medium-sized enterprises, often owner managed, with turnover from £200,000 to £2m per annum.

MTF has enjoyed a successful year in 2008 with positive activity in providing purchase finance for a variety of products to many selected end customers.

Regency Factors plc – Maurice Craft
2 Regency Chambers
Jubilee Way
Bury
Lancashire
BL9 0JW
Tel: +44 (0) 845 450 2220
Fax: +44 (0) 161 761 4018
E-mail: sales@regencyfactors.com

Founded in 1991, at Regency Factors we pride ourselves on a positive and flexible approach taken when tailoring finance solutions for our clients. Offering purchase finance facilities to the SME marketplace, we aim to understand our client’s needs to offer best fit solutions to their requirements, which helps us to help them in their growth aspirations.

We specialise in transactional support that offers a range of facilities designed to assist with the purchase of goods from suppliers with the aim of getting the deals done. We do not have typical deals as we tailor our solutions to our client’s requirements and can provide letters of credit, cash against document payments, payments direct to suppliers; working hard to operate in a complimentary manner to our clients, so making the facilities an integral part of their normal business.

We can offer complete transaction solutions by offering a one-stop-shop solution to funding sales by linking our purchase finance with our invoice factoring facilities which can really help to take the pressure off our client’s working capital.

Alternatively, our flexibility and experience allows us to offer bespoke solutions for stand-alone purchase finance where existing funding lines might make it difficult to put a factoring line in place.

It is in these cases when our flexible approach really wins through. We would agree a transaction period for the facility (normally between 30 and 90 days) and we would look at credit insurance cover against our clients and end buyer failure as a method of protecting our exposure; with repayment made on an agreed date. It is this type of flexibility and innovation that stands us apart from other funders in our market.

Our real strengths are our flexibility, our quick decision making process, our in-depth client knowledge and the experience and expertise of our ever growing team. Therefore, as Regency continues to grow in to 2009, we look forward to working with and helping many more SME businesses to succeed in the current market.

Key personnel:
Mark Lindsay – regional manager
Rob Mercer – head of sales
Rebecca Ramsden – trade finance manager

Sterling Trade Finance – Soheill Sarkoob
Winchester House
259-269 Old Marylebone Road
London
NW1 5RA
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7170 4084
Fax: +44 (0) 20 7170 4087
E-mail: sales@sterlingtradefinance.com
www.sterlingtradefinance.com

Sterling Trade Finance is an independent trade finance house, specialising in non-balance sheet financing solutions for SME’s to achieve the growth that is so often within their potential, but limited by cashflow constraints.

The company was sponsored and financed by Charles Street Securities in October 2008 and has a seasoned management team with over 25 years’ combined experience in trade finance. In the current economic climate which has seen a major tightening of lending criteria and a squeeze on credit lines by most lenders, Sterling stands out as a new lender with available funds and a willingness to do business.

The products offered include: a stand-alone purchase finance facility, selective invoice discounting, and a combined product that finances the complete supply chain from purchase of goods and VAT and duty payments through to credit insurance and debtor collections.

We are particularly client focused and quick and flexible decision making allows us to tailor our facilities to meet the clients requirements. Sterling Trade Finance’s niche is financing individual transactions from £25,000 to £500,000, targeted at the SME market often importers and exporters involved in a variety of industries including: textiles, apparels, accessories, giftware, furniture, white and brown goods, promotional products and services.

It is our philosophy to add value to our client’s business whenever possible and in addition to funding and providing deal related support such as marine insurance; we can manage the whole supply chain from sourcing goods to delivery to end customers. We manage quality control, importation, transportation and credit control, therefore allowing clients to concentrate on their core products.

• The benefits of using Sterling are numerous:

• selective invoice finance facility (one debtor only if requested);
  facilities are flexible and can be utilised on a one off or regular basis;

• can be used in conjunction with other banking or invoice discounting facilities;

• 100% credit insurance indemnity;

• no prime debtor issues;

• export markets included;

• foreign exchange facility allows margins to be protected with forward contracts;

• comprehensive marine cargo insurance; and

• Our extensive worldwide contact base and experience of international trade finance.

The principal parties include chairman Victor Segal, with over 30 years’ banking experience in senior positions including investments and international finance. Soheill Sarkoob, managing director with14 years’ trade finance and asset-based lending experience. Steven Pleace, operations director who has over 12 years’ trade finance, factoring and invoice discounting experience and Brett Simon, chief financial officer and a fully qualified chartered accountant with over five years’ general accounting experience in South Africa and
the UK.
We look forward to building our presence in the coming year and welcome contact from brokers, financial intermediaries and other asset-based lenders who would like to build a successful business partnership.

United Business Finance Ltd – Maurice Ezekiel
4 Imperial Place
Maxwell Road
Borehamwood
Hertfordshire
WD6 1JN
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8213 3110
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8213 3115
E-mail: m.ezekiel@ubf-ltd.com

UBF was founded in 2006 and we are currently in our third year of trading.

UBF is an independent trade finance house, specialising in bespoke financial solutions for the SME sector. We provide purchase finance, transaction finance and single debtor invoice finance facilities, confidential invoice discounting facilities, as well as offering traditional bill discounting facilities.

2008 was a successful year for the company, with goods funded in excess of £12m, and we are looking to build on this during 2009.

UBF’s strength is that it is owner-managed which enables it to not only tailor make facilities to suit the client’s needs, but also to react quickly when required.

Key personnel:
Maurice Ezekiel – managing director
Kenny Lieu – operations director

Venture Finance – Brian Colvill
Sheencroft House
10-12 Church Road
Haywards Heath
West Sussex
RH16 3SN
Tel: 0800 515053
Fax: +44 (0) 1444 415982
E-mail: brian.colvil@venture-finance.co.uk
www.venture-finance.co.uk

Venture Finance is a premier independent invoice and asset-based financier with two decades’ experience helping thousands of businesses. The company handles over £3.5bn in client invoices annually and our fantastic range of services including factoring, invoice discounting and asset-based lending has helped our clients raise greater funding, faster. Venture’s Trade Finance service protects and supports organisations when importing goods from overseas suppliers. It combines trade and invoice financing to pre-pay clients’ overseas suppliers.

The last 12 months have been challenging but positive for Venture’s Trade Finance division. We have managed to increase our general income stream on last year by more than double, despite the economic downturn which has put increased financial pressure on clients’ ability and appetite to trade overseas. Our client line shows the diversity of our expertise with a variety of sectors – all enjoying the benefits of our vast experience.

By taking care of crucial and complex paperwork procedures we find that, as well as the financial benefits, our clients gain extra time from using our trade finance. Our service also includes a 24/7 online letter of credit service and full tracking, making it one of the most flexible and transparent services available.

Clients have experienced that our import Finance closes their funding gap without impacting on businesses cashflow. It takes much of the financial stress out of importing, from the purchasing end of the business cycle right through to the outright sale and gives a cashflow injection that helps fund your next consignment in days. Venture will fund up to 100% of the purchase price and can include funding for duty, VAT and freight.

Looking ahead to 2009, I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the difficulty of the general economic situation, both in the UK and worldwide. However, I do feel that business will still be done between realistic parties. Venture remains steadfast in its commitment to  offer UK businesses solid support in these turbulent times.

Relationships may be tested somewhat between businesses trading overseas with foreign suppliers. However, when combined with an invoice finance service, trade finance ensures that funding is extended all the way to the point at which the end customer pays. I feel that the financial assurance our facilities provide will be more sought after than ever by UK businesses in these credit-starved times.

Finally, I predict that interest in our bad debt protection service, as part of an existing facility, will increase. It shields against unforeseen unpaid invoices and will become critical as businesses seek to protect themselves further against the recession.

Summary

My thanks to everyone who helped make our review of trade financiers a robust and confident exercise this time around. Clearly business is there to be done and a big welcome for the right deal.

Trade finance traditionally facilitates a transaction where capital is in short supply but it is a minefield for the unwary and long time readers will note the absence of Fairfax Gerrard which has bestrode this arena with such panache for so long.

This is not the place for post mortems, maybe the story of that one will emerge one day, but every story has two sides as well. Clearly whilst the business is in the hands of Grant Thornton it would not be appropriate to go any further.

We may expand the brief next year.

Lloyds TSB surprised me with a last minute contribution this year and having chased away the PR folk at HSBC, surely one of the masters, or mistresses, in the sector, this was less than fair and I apologise. It was too late to summon up anything as the deadline approached.

A word of praise here for two stalwarts of the sector.

Robin Smith of Gower House Associates has been a long standing and true friend over the nearly 16 years that I have been publishing Business Money. If I tell those enquiring of him that he is as straight as a gun barrel, it is high praise and I publicly thank him for his support too.

Bank Leumi is the other.

An ever present, not only in its own right but also as a supporter of the industry with funding lines and an array of technical instruments Bank Leumi, despite taking the odd hit when some it has funded have stumbled, always comes bouncing back with its appetite for trade finance as healthy as ever.

Collin Cumberland and his teams, both in London, and in Brighton, deserve praise.

The coming year will make a successful trade finance sector even more important to the SME sector. It is good to know that there are several offices only too happy to hear from them.

Add Platinum to your calling list too. As new entrants they played coy with us this year but Toni! How about revealing a little more next year?
 

Editor

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