Ultimate Finance achieved its highest ever six-month period for new business origination, with £109m of new facilities provided in the first six months of 2024, up 44% on the same period last year. With its total loan book 14% higher than the year-end close in December 2023, the specialist asset-based lender continues its mission to support more businesses with access to much needed cashflow.
The asset-based lender’s portfolio highlights include:
- New lending growth of 44% compared to the same period last year and the highest ever half year period
- Group loan book growth of 14% to £340m from December 2023, a £40m increase
- Strong performance in key loan book and origination metrics across all three products:
- £100m loan book milestones reached for both Asset Finance and Bridging Finance in H1
- £109m of total H1 origination split £52m Bridging Finance, £29m Asset Finance and £28m Working Capital
- Approaching 4,000 total live client facilities
- Strong customer service metrics continue to set the lender apart in its market, with an Excellent Trustpilot rating of 5/5 achieved in June for the first time, a Net Promoter Score of 73% and continued recognition in industry awards, including being awarded Specialist Product of the Year at the recent B&C Awards.
Josh Levy, CEO of Ultimate Finance, said, “I am delighted to report another strong half year performance with some significant loan book, origination and customer service milestones met as we continue our consistent and continuous progression. Our success remains the output of incremental improvement that focuses on our key service proposition to our clients and introducer partners, with this momentum building further in the first six months of 2024. It is the combination of progress in multiple areas that together adds up to material advancement, with numbers just one part of the story as we reflected on in our recent Responsible Business Report publication covering our ESG commitments and priorities.
The milestones we have reached are meaningful as we look to build a diversified asset-based lending business with each of our product lines providing both quality and scale. We are proud to work in partnership with our introducers and brokers to support the ambitions of SMEs and property investors across the UK and have welcomed dozens of new members to our team in the last 12 months to enable continued growth.
Our clients – and therefore our loan book – continue to perform well despite tough trading conditions in many sectors. With political certainty and stability now set post-election, and inflation levels much reduced, we hope to see the first interest rate cuts delivered in the coming months to act as a further catalyst for business confidence and investment. The new Government has made housing a key policy theme with new home building targets and promised planning reform, and whilst this is familiar rhetoric, both the housing market and construction industry will be hoping that core aspects of this can finally be delivered.
The versality of our solution offering gives us significant confidence in our ability to capitalise on the market dynamics we see ahead. We expect to see an uptick in transactions of various types, including MBOs, property purchases and energy efficiency driven upgrades to equipment and vehicles. Specialist lenders will continue to provide businesses with strategic funding options to fill the mainstream funding gaps that have long existed, and we are confident that our singular product solutions and full asset-based lending Structured Finance will prove to be valuable in the months ahead.
Funding certainty is at the heart of the specialist lending model and drives the ability to deliver reliably, consistently and quickly. We have always benefited from a deep capital base being part of the Tavistock Group and will have some exciting news to share soon to further increase our already substantial funding capacity. Coupled with the technology-enabled personal service we provide our clients and introducers to create long lasting, meaningful relationships, we are well placed to continue this success in the second half of this year.”
