ART lending hits record monthly levels

A SPECIALIST lender to businesses in Birmingham and Solihull has reported a record lending month for August with nearly £500,000 taken up.

During last month, Aston Reinvestment Trust agreed loans worth a total of £419,000 at an average of £22,000 per company.

A spokeswoman told TheBusinessDesk.com around 80% of August’s loans went to existing companies, a stark deviation from the normal spread whereby around half of applications comes from start-up businesses.

She added that requests came from a broad mix of sectors including media, transport, blind manufacturers and the fitness industry.

ART lends between £10,000 and £50,000 to businesses which cannot get financing via banks and is a not-for-profit Community Development Finance Institution, designed to aim SMEs.

Chief executive Steve Walker said: “We have seen a steady increase in demand since the start of the new financial year in April, but August 2011 has been the busiest month for us in terms of loans actually made since we started lending in June 1997.

“There’s no pattern to the type of borrower, we’ve supported start ups and existing businesses, large and small, operating in a wide variety of market sectors.

“The only thing they have in common is that the banks have been unable to fully meet their needs.

“We have a further £200,000 worth of loans agreed and another £500,000 going through the applications process at present, but still have plenty more money to lend in the coming year.”