Farmer consolidates debt with a £1.4m bridge ahead of retirement
An entrepreneurial dairy farmer forced to take on emergency loans when his milking herd was struck down by salmonella has consolidated the debt with a bridging loan ahead of his planned retirement.
The organic farmer, who has worked on his family’s 200-acre business for nearly three decades, was left with severe cashflow problems during a six-month period when he was unable to sell his milk because of the salmonella outbreak among his herd.
To overcome his financial difficulties, he took out six emergency loans in 2023.
With the herd now fully vaccinated and performing well, he was looking to refinance into a single loan that would be more manageable and easier to repay from the sale of two farmhouses, their outbuildings and surrounding land.
As the properties served as both working farms and family residences, the case required careful management of occupancy arrangements, using formal AST agreements, alongside wider legal due diligence.
Having worked with Together on several large commercial cases before, intermediary Equity One Finance Ltd. were confident that Together would be able to support the client’s plans.
Together agreed to provide a £1.4m unregulated bridging loan on a 12-month term, secured against both Devon farm properties, at 48% LTV on a retained interest basis.
Dan Narwal, Together’s intermediary corporate account director, said: “Multiple existing loans can become an administrative burden for smaller independent businesses like our clients and can often make transitioning out of that business more complicated.
“Consolidating a large debt like this, with a clear and viable exit plan, allowed the client to get their finances in order and move towards an orderly downsizing and retirement.
The case represents another example of how our Premier for Intermediaries team are making it easier for brokers to submit £1m+ loans and get the right outcome for their high-net-worth and business clients.”
Dale Robinson, director at EquityOne said: “This case had a few stumbling blocks due to issues surrounding unregistered land, occupancy of the security properties and a historic CCJ tied to the property, but not the borrower. Together’s team diligently helped us work through these issues and kept the case moving forward.
“My client can now put his plans in place without the additional financial burden of managing multiple loans.”