Impressive results released by Ultimate Finance Group
Ultimate Finance Group, which was acquired by Inspired Capital plc in September 2013 and provides cashflow solutions to SMEs, significantly increased its loan book and client base in its last financial year as more companies choose to fund their businesses through invoice finance and asset-based lending rather than by traditional lending via high street banks.
The preliminary results for the year ended 31 December 2014, show that the loan book increased by 60.8% and the number of clients is up by 36.3%.
Business highlights include the appointment of key management personnel, including Nick Smith as Group sales director, increased marketing investment and the tripling of the sales force to support existing products.
Ultimate Finance Group has also secured an additional £25m debt facility through British Business Bank Investments Limited, the commercial arm of the Government’s economic development bank.
The funding will be provided as a three year syndicated back-to-back facility with Lloyds Bank, increasing the total facilities for Ultimate Finance Group’s invoice finance business to £75m.
Speaking about the results, chief executive officer of Ultimate Finance Group, Jeremy Coombes, said: “The growth we have experienced is part of our strategy to rapidly grow our loan book by continuing to work closely with intermediaries and SMEs and provide them with innovative and flexible new products that will enable them to grow and prosper. To maintain the momentum we continue to assemble a highly experienced sales team that is well known and highly respected by both intermediaries and businesses. We are also opening new offices to increase our coverage in the UK and have recently opened our first one north of the border in Glasgow, bringing the number of offices to eight. The profits generated by the business in the coming years will be reinvested in areas such as sales and marketing, infrastructure and IT.”
Further evidence that Ultimate Finance Group has been performing well is the fact it has significantly increased its market share within the asset-based lending sector, according to the quarterly statistics released in March by industry body, the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA).
In the quarter to December 2014, businesses in the UK received £19.4bn of funding through asset based lending, an increase of £1.6bn on the same period a year ago, which is an all-time high as businesses go for growth.
ABFA believes the rise in popularity is in part due to the speed with which this type of finance can be agreed or extended, as it provides the ideal way for businesses to quickly respond to growth opportunities as the economy recovers.