Midland law firm acts on £5m car supply firm investment
MIDLANDS law firm Wright Hassall has acted on a multi-million-pound investment into a motor leasing specialist.
The Leamington Spa-based firm has advised HWSIL Finance Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hadrian’s Wall Secured Investments (HWSIL), a main market London Stock Exchange-listed investment company – on a £5m lending deal to XL Cars.
XL Cars, based in Kirton, near Boston in Lincolnshire, specialises in the supply of short-term contract hire cars to businesses and corporate clients across the UK – usually for terms of between six and 12 months.
The company is set to expand its fleet of executive cars and vans significantly having completed the next deal, which is being financed by HWSIL over the next five years.
Christopher Jones, senior associate who led the transaction for Wright Hassall, said: “We are really pleased to have supported Hadrian’s Wall Capital – the investment adviser to HWSIL – in such a significant and innovative transaction.
“We were tasked with delivering a secured financing structure that gives XL Cars a high degree of operational flexibility, and we look forward to seeing the growth of its business that this financing will help XL Cars achieve.”
HWSIL has entered the lending market as an alternative to the mainstream banks. The lender has raised an initial £80m through a share offering to investors and has a particular focus on financing UK SMEs which are under-served by traditional lenders.
Ron Miao, chief operating officer of Hadrian’s Wall Capital, said: “We’ve identified a gap in the market to lend to SMEs looking to take their businesses to the next level, through structured and flexible investments between £1m and £10m.
“XL Cars has a very viable plan to expand the business and we’re excited to be working with them.
“This is the first investment deal we’ve completed, and the first deal we’ve worked on with Wright Hassall. They are a good fit for our legal needs and we look forward to working with them again in the future.”
Martin Walker, director of XL Cars, said the investment would enable the company to expand significantly.
“We’ve grown our fleet to be around 600 cars and vans and the deal with Hadrian’s Wall enables us to draw down funds when we need them to update and expand the fleet,” he said.
“In the past we’ve used conventional asset finance, which has been very inflexible and very hard to get.
“We were extremely impressed by Hadrian’s Wall’s approach and can-do attitude. The investment gives us absolute flexibility to grow the business to where we want it to be.”
