Absolute Invoice Finance thriving under new owner

THE invoice finance business that was hived off from Yorkshire-based distressed doorstep lender Cattles last year is witnessing a surge in deal volumes under its new ownership, according to managing director Ian Wilkins.

The business, which has since been rebranded as Absolute Invoice Finance, is just approaching its first year as an independent, has increased deal volumes by 35%.

Staff numbers have also climbed by 45 to 192 people across six offices. The Manchester office, which retains most of its head office functions, employs around 57.

Mr Wilkins said that the the purchase of Absolute Finance by private equity firm Anacap Financial in September 2009 introduced a £70m funding line into the business and gave it access to capital which had been curtailed during the final era of Cattles’ ownership.

The company was then subsequently rolled into another Anacap venture, London-based Aldermore Bank, in November 2009.

Mr Wilkins said that in its new guise the company had been “busier than we could have expected”.

“A big part of that has been taking market share from competitors. The market is not much busier than it was 12 months ago,” he said. “But we’ve funded £1.1bn of client sales and we’re lending just less than £100m to clients.”

He added that the business was “still run as a standalone division” but said closer ties with Aldermore meant that it could cross-sell its services with the commercial mortgages and asset finance packages being offered by the bank.

“There’s still healthy competition from banks and other independents in the sector, but the big strategic advantage is that we have liquidity – perhaps more so than some of the bigger banks – and an ability to deliver a local service.”

The final set of accounts for Absolute Invoice Finance as a standalone company show that sales dropped to £16m in the year to December 31, 2009 from £19.9m a year earlier.

The company also posted a pre-tax loss of £1.7m, compared with a profit of £7.4m a year earlier.

There was a charge of £5.5m relating to exceptional restructuring costs during the period, which Mr Wilkins said was due to a mixture of deal completion and reorganisation costs. Absolute Invoice Finance also assumed £3m worth of pension liabilities from Cattles.

Trading figures were also reduced as there were six weeks at the end of the period where the company was not trading after it effectively became a shell.