Nucleus Commercial Finance secures £40m in new funding
Nucleus Commercial Finance and M&G Investments (M&G) today announce a £40m funding line that will support more SMEs through asset-based lending (ABL) solutions. This finance will increase Nucleus’ capacity to support businesses by 40%, through competitively priced ABL solutions – providing a significant injection of finance for businesses across the UK.
To date, Nucleus Commercial Finance has funded invoices from over 5,000 UK businesses, providing total ABL funding of over £900m.. ABL enables businesses to raise finance through leveraging their assets including: unpaid invoices, WIP, property, plant & machinery and inventory.
The size of the average ABL facility provided by Nucleus Commercial Finance has doubled every year since the business started in 2007. This additional funding will escalate that growth during 2019 and beyond.
Nucleus Commercial Finance CEO, Chirag Shah, said: “Working with M&G Investments to secure another funding line, reinforces our role as a true alternative to high street banks. This funding means that we will be able to work with more businesses across all sectors and sizes and particularly larger businesses which we believe are currently under served, due to the often complex nature of the finance that they require.
“This new facility also increases our flexibility by allowing us to offer more competitively priced funding to UK SMEs. Our tailored approach means that we work with SMEs to provide the financial backbone for their growth ambitions through our wide product range, but we also support them with the professional guidance they need to have the right finance in place for their business for the longer-term.”
James Pearce, head of direct lending at M&G Investments comments, “This partnership sees our pension fund clients direct much needed capital to SMEs, providing them with access to finance that will help them invest and grow.”
Kevin Haupert, director, ABL at M&G Investments adds: “ABL has been growing in popularity amongst both borrowers and advisers in recent years as business loans from traditional sources have become more difficult to obtain following the financial crisis. Unlocking the value of assets that can be used as collateral by lenders provides a highly flexible form of financing and enables companies to improve their liquidity. Nucleus Commercial Finance has over a decade of experience in ABL and have an excellent track record as well as a deep understanding of businesses and their financing needs.”
Today’s news follows the announcement that Nucleus Commercial Finance has now lent over £1bn to UK SMEs – demonstrating its commitment to providing businesses with access to bespoke, multi-product lending solutions.
Since 2008, it has become more difficult for smaller UK companies to raise financing through the traditional route of commercial bank loans. Non-bank lenders such as Nucleus Commercial Finance and M&G have been providing an increasing amount of finance to meet SMEs external funding requirements, plugging the gap created by banks’ withdrawal.
