Challenger bank plans Yorkshire office launch as lending doubles
Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance says it is looking to open a Yorkshire office after it announced lending balances have doubled for the second consecutive year.
The firm’s asset based lending division has provided £11m to North East and Yorkshire based SMEs since its last results were published.
This is the second consecutive year that the firm has doubled lending, with almost £2bn worth of client invoices funded since its inception in 2014.
Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance provides flexible asset based lending and invoice finance products to small and medium sized enterprises. The division operates nationwide with dedicated regional sales directors in each of the UK regions.
The firm recently provided a £2.3m finance facility to Twisted Automotive, a North Yorkshire-based business that re-engineers new and used Land Rover Defenders.
The funding was used to refinance the remainder of 240 vehicles purchased from the Defender’s last ever production run.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange since 2011 and added to the main market in 2016, the wider Secure Trust Bank Group has also seen strong growth. Pre-tax profits rose to £25m in the last 12 months – an increase of 28.9% on 2016 figures.
John Gribbon, regional director for Yorkshire at Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance, said: “Doubling our lending balances two years in a row is a massive achievement, and is indicative of how far we have come as a lender. We’re now on our way to another significant milestone, having funded almost £2bn of client invoices, nearly £1bn of which have come in the last 12 months. But it’s not all about numbers; we’ve also increased our focus on completing quality deals and backing ambitious and talented management teams in Yorkshire and the North East.
“As we continue to build our nationwide footprint, we are looking to establish an office in Yorkshire so we can serve SMEs across this region and the North East. Having eased into my role in the Yorkshire patch, the foundations are now set for us to scale up and become the nation’s leading provider of alternative finance.”
