Specialist asset-based lender Ultimate Finance provided funding of more than £1bn to UK SMEs in the first half of 2023, with new business volumes up 21% on last year and 635 new facilities to help keep business moving.
Portfolio highlights from H1 include:
- Closing Group loan book finishing the period up 9% to a record level just below £300m
- Bridging Finance loan book back above £50m following a positive start to the year with new business volumes over double the same period last year
- New records continuing to be set in Asset Finance with a total loan book size up 14%, new business volumes up 7% and book quality remaining strong
- Growing demand for Working Capital solutions with a total loan book above £150m and over 12% of our client base benefiting from facility increases in the period
- Continued strong customer service metrics, maintaining a Trustpilot score of 4.9 and excellent Net Promoter Score of 68%
Josh Levy, CEO of Ultimate Finance, said, “We came into this year looking to further our track record of strong performance through continued challenging market conditions. This would mean managing the balance of risks and opportunities, proving the quality and strength of our loan book, delivering further improvements to our relationship-driven service levels to clients and introducers, and continuing to grow our loan book and new business volumes.
Looking back on the first half, we are pleased to remain on course for another successful year as we continue to be recognised as a leading specialist asset-based lender and the funding partner of choice. Our new business figures, up 21% on the same period of 2022, and robust book performance give us significant confidence in our direction and ambition.
Economic conditions remain tough for SMEs and the interest rate environment volatile, with good news in the real economy paradoxically translating into bad news for inflation and consequently rate expectations. At all times our mission is to stay consistent, disciplined, and focused, resisting the sentiment swings that come along and recognising that we can’t control external events.
We remain focused on our strengths, with an emphasis on working in partnership with our clients and introducers, a substantial funding base and the benefit of our multi-product diversification.
The versality of our solution offering provides value-add funding options in both good times and bad:
- Working Capital / Invoice Finance solutions for high growth or cashflow support, with a well-established specialist Construction Finance offering seeing good growth
- Asset Finance solutions to enable business-critical investment, the move towards energy efficiency equipment and vehicles, and the releasing of capital from previously acquired assets
- Bridging Finance for the quick facilitation of below market value residential asset purchase opportunities, or to fix rates and allow for an extended sale period following a development completion
- Full asset-based lending Structured Finance solutions to flexibly borrow against multiple assets at the same time through a single facility and maximise funding potential
Key to our success is the strong partnerships we have with our introducers and brokers, where our focus continues to be to develop our deal execution delivery, making us the go-to funder to meet their clients need, and our excellent Net Promoter Score of 68% demonstrates we are delivering on this strategy.
Speed, flexibility, personal relationships, quality service and funding certainty will remain our priorities for the remainder of this year and beyond.
