SME lender Assetz Capital approved for accreditation as lender under Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)
· Assetz Capital approved for accreditation as a lender by the British Business Bank under CBILS
· Financial support for small and medium sized businesses that are adversely impacted by coronavirus
· Commercial mortgages and property development loans to be available
· Loans available from £250k to £5m and for repayment terms of up to 5 years
· The government to cover interest and lender fees for the first 12 months
Assetz Capital, the leading marketplace peer-to-peer lender, has been approved for accreditation as a lender by the British Business Bank under the government-backed Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).
The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, delivered through 60+ British Business Bank accredited lenders, is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses (SMEs) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The scheme enables lenders to provide facilities of up to £5m to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow.
It supports a wide range of business finance products, including term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance facilities.
The accreditation will enable Assetz Capital to provide property-secured term loans between £250k and £5m to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that require financial support due to the coronavirus pandemic. The lender will start providing loans to its existing customers once it has operationalised its lending under the scheme and expects to announce shortly thereafter that it will also begin to deal with new enquiries.
Under CBILS, the first 12 months of interest on the facility and lender arrangement fees are paid by the UK government as a Business Interruption Payment. This means that businesses will benefit from no upfront lender costs and lower initial repayments.
Both commercial mortgages and property development loans will be available, including a focus on supporting SME house builders, a speciality of Assetz Capital.
Assetz Capital has lent over £1 billion since its inception in 2013 to UK SMEs and house builders and funded around 1 in every 100 new homes last year, funding the entire costs to complete of over 5,000 new homes. It is estimated that its current borrowers support up to 100,000 jobs across the UK.
Stuart Law, CEO at Assetz Capital said: “We are delighted with this accreditation by the British Business Bank and it will help us to carry some of the weight of supporting this country’s great small businesses and house builders in this very difficult time. We are passionate about supporting SMEs and since we founded the company back in 2013, we have been working diligently to help fill the funding gap to those companies.
“As a marketplace lender, we are funded by a portfolio of institutions as well as tens of thousands of retail investors. CBILS, necessarily, will only be funded by institutional investors and these currently include UK and European banks, specialist credit funds and our dedicated institutional investment fund. We look forward to originating and managing these new loans for those institutional investors as the country begins its journey to recovery over coming months.
“Our marketplace model has served our retail and institutional investors well over the last seven years. We now welcome a number of new bank and non-bank institutions who also wish to utilise our nationwide loan origination service and deeply experienced credit and servicing teams to deploy and manage their capital through our CBILS lending. With loan pricing available keener than ever we look forward to helping to lead the way out of this crisis and supporting viable businesses, their staff and in turn their families.”
SMEs can apply for an Assetz Capital CBILS term loan, if they meet all of the following criteria:
· They are a UK-based business activity with annual turnover up to £45m
· They have a viable borrowing proposal for us to consider
· They can self-certify that you have been adversely impacted by the coronavirus (COVID-19)
· They wish to borrow between £250,000 and £5 million for a term of up to 5 years
· They require a Property Development Loan or Commercial Mortgage
· They have not been classed as a “business in difficulty” on, or before 31 December 2019
Please note that other criteria apply.