Finance provider launches community share offer
A community share offer is being launched today to raise £500,000 to lend to businesses in the region.
Birmingham-based ART Business Loans and investment platform Ethex have partnered on the scheme, which was first revealed by TheBusinessDesk.com in October.
ART is a Community Development Finance Institution which has lent more than £20m in business loans since it was founded by its first chairman Sir Adrian Cadbury in 1997. It remains focused on supporting businesses that operate in the local economy and promote job opportunities.
However it has felt constrained by a lack of funds since the closure of the Regional Growth Fund in 2015. It has lent around £2.5m a year in the last two years when it believes it has the infrastructure and the demand from eligible businesses to lend £4m.
The launch of the community share offer, which is open for 11 weeks, sees ART revert back to its original method of raising funds by seeking to attract high net worth individuals and corporate investors.
Dr Steve Walker, chief executive of ART, said: “Our current loan portfolio is over £5m and we are seeking additional capital through this community share offer to enable us to lend even more to West Midlands businesses in the year ahead.
“Investors will be putting their money to work for the benefit of the local economy.”
He believes funding gaps remain for SMEs despite the rise of alternative lenders.
He added: “Research shows that there are many small to medium sized enterprises in the West Midlands, which remain unable to access appropriate finance to support their business plans, despite new alternative sources to the banks entering the market over the past 10 years.
“Many of them have similar lending criteria to the banks, or are charging very high interest rates. We are all about providing responsible finance and bring our expertise to bear in making lending decisions.”
