Ashley deal boosts Ultimate Finance

INVOICE discounting group Ultimate Finance announced a 61% increase in pre-tax profits and a 51% growth in sales in the year to June 30 in the wake of its acquisition of Cheadle-based competitor Ashley Commercial Finance.

The company, which is headquartered in Bristol, said that the £4.75m acquisition of Ashley last October had significantly broadened the company’s target market.

It also said that Ashley had subsequently been integrated into its Manchester office and added that it was leveraging the Ashley brand through cross-selling and joint marketing initiatives.

Chairman Clive Garston said that the company’s financial performance “reflects the efforts which have been made to grow the business and it is pleasing that the client base grew during the period, with a substantial number of new clients having been gained”.  

He added that the company was “well-placed” to grow and currently had around £6.3m of headroom on the £34m funding line provided to it by Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance.

He said the firm expects to grow its order book during its current financial year, but argued that its growth rate would be “influenced by economic conditions”.

“There is evidence that some of our competitors are adopting short term tactics to buy market share at the expense of unacceptable risk. We will not follow that path and will continue to maintain high standards of underwriting and risk management.”