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British Business Bank makes new commitment to Propel to enable £165 million of asset finance for smaller UK businesses

Press release 25 August 2022

New facility is part of a wider transaction which will provide around £0.5 billion of funding to businesses across the UK.

The British Business Bank today announces a new ENABLE Funding facility to Propel, one of the UK’s largest and fastest growing independent asset finance providers.

The new facility will allow Propel to provide around £165 million of finance to smaller businesses across the UK.

ENABLE Funding

Launched in 2014, the ENABLE Funding programme supports the British Business Bank’s objective to diversify finance markets for smaller UK businesses.

Providers of finance to smaller businesses often lack the scale required to access capital markets – a key source of funding for lending institutions – in a cost-efficient manner.

The ENABLE Funding programme warehouses newly-originated finance receivables from different originators – bringing them together into a new structure.

Once the structure has sufficient scale, it will refinance a portion of its funding on the capital markets, helping smaller finance providers to tap into institutional investors’ funds.

In addition, Propel has completed its first private securitisation, consisting of £275 million provided by Citibank and a £35 million mezzanine working capital facility provided by Quilam Capital.

Propel provides hire purchase, leasing and refinancing support on equipment purchases from a few thousand pounds to more than £2 million. It also provides equipment types ranging from telecoms and technology to commercial vehicles and industrial plant.

We are delighted to be supporting smaller businesses via our ENABLE Funding programme and for Propel Finance to enter in this next stage of its development. Continued funding via ENABLE, as well as Propel’s first refinancing transaction, will allow them to provide smaller businesses with greater access to a wider range of finance options and help create a more diverse finance market. - Reinald de Monchy Managing Director, Guarantee and Wholesale Solutions, British Business Bank
We are thrilled to have completed this latest funding transaction, which marks this latest stage of Propel’s growth in our mission to provide accessible finance to SMEs across the UK. We are an important funding partner of the British Business Bank and are excited by the growth opportunities the new funding lines with Citi and Quilam will provide. I should also acknowledge the brilliant work of the Propel team in getting this transaction successfully completed. - Mark Catton CEO, Propel

Notes to editors

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK, and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank’s core programmes support over £8.5 billion 1  of finance to almost 95,000 smaller businesses 2 . The British Business Bank is responsible for running the government’s Coronavirus business loan schemes and Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4 billion of finance to 1.67 million businesses. The schemes are now closed to new applications.

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. In light of the coronavirus pandemic and EU Exit, the Finance Hub has expanded and it now targets a wider business audience. It continues to provide information and support for scale-up, high growth and potential high growth businesses, but now provides increased content, information and products for businesses in survival and recovery mindsets. The Finance Hub has been redesigned and repositioned to reflect this, during this period of economic uncertainty.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.

The funding from British Business Bank to Propel Finance does not amount to any endorsement or warranty from British Business Bank plc, or the government of the UK.

The ENABLE Funding Scheme is managed by British Business Financial Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Business Bank plc, on behalf of, and with the financial backing of, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy.

About Propel

Propel is the fastest growing asset finance lender in the UK, enabling more than 45,000 businesses across the UK to access finance to acquire business-critical equipment quickly and easily. It is also one of the leading vendor finance platforms in the UK, supporting equipment suppliers with lease programmes. The company delivers leading-edge asset finance solutions to drive business growth. All solutions are delivered through a personal, progressive and partner-orientated approach; harnessing a combination of teamwork, talent and technology.

The specialist independent lender combines its revolutionary deal processing technology (Propeller) with the in-depth understanding and relationship-driven focus of industry experts.

The range of business assets which Propel finance is vast and they provide business finance to a wide variety of sectors; ranging from Transport, Construction, Manufacturing, Agriculture, Leisure, Catering/Hospitality, IT and more.

In 2020, Propel partnered with Barclays Business Banking to give over 1200 relationship managers and a million SMEs access to their smart asset finance services to purchase business-critical equipment and vehicles. While Barclays already provides asset finance to larger businesses, the new partnership with Propel allows their Business Banking customer base to gain the benefits of their technology-driven and service-led asset finance service. This offering combines streamlined processing, rapid decisions and a seamless customer experience. In 2021 Propel also announced its partnership with Azets, the largest regional Top 10 SME accountancy firm, with Propel being its strategic partner for asset finance solutions to its 60,000 UK clients.

Over the last two years, Propel has won over 30 awards and invested significantly in its smart asset finance technology platform. Propel is majority owned by Cabot Square Capital LLP, a leading PE firm for financial services in the UK. It is also an accredited delivery partner of the British Business Bank’s ENABLE Funding programme.

For more information visit propelfinance.co.uk.

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