£75m funding deal puts AAG in the driving seat
A MAJOR funding deal has been put in place to back the growth of commercial vehicle finance provider Asset Alliance Group (AAG).
The Wolverhampton-based group has secured £75m in a syndicated asset-based lending (ABL) deal led by Royal Bank of Scotland.
AAG was founded in 2011 by the former managing director of Alliance & Leicester Commercial Finance Willie Paterson and now employs 80 people in Wolverhampton and Lanarkshire.
It has become an established finance provider and it also sells new and used trucks and trailers.
AAG expanded into buses and coaches in January after acquiring specialist broker Forest Asset Finance and it said it is planning for further growth, both organically and through targeted acquisition.
Mr Paterson, chief executive of AAG, said the funding would “support our future growth strategy and diversification into new sectors”.
He said: “Our approach is quite unique because we don’t just lend and provide a range of flexible finance packages, we purchase, refinance and procure for our clients.
“This approach is proving popular and as a result we are now one of the fastest growing companies in our sector. By adding bus and coach finance to our services we can widen our client base and our portfolio of products and services.”
AAG’s most recent accounts, for 2014, showed turnover had grown to nearly £25m, although it made a pre-tax loss of £2.8m, which was slightly more than in its two previous accounting periods.
However it attributed this to its expansion and highlighted an improved gross profit while saying it was making “good EBITDA profits on a monthly basis” and forecast net trading profits for 2015.
The ABL facility is structured against the company’s considerable portfolio of vehicle assets. Ernst & Young’s capital and debt advisory team led by Jashen Josson supported the transaction throughout the process.
