Refinance deal provides civil engineering firm with a six-month safety net

Paul Taylor, one of United Trust Bank’s Asset Finance Business Development Managers, was approached by a broker partner representing a civil engineering firm with an imminent cash flow problem. The company was an existing UTB customer and the Bank was keen to help them find a solution.

The company was trading successfully and had good contracts with a large and well known construction and infrastructure group. The group had informed UTB’s customer that it was introducing a new payment system which although in the long term would improve the payment process, during the transition some delays to invoice payments could be expected. With various costs to meet including the wage bill, existing finance payments and various other regular expenses to cover, the company decided that an injection of funds to support cash flow for the following six months would be a prudent measure.

In addition to the five, crane fitted tipper trucks the firm had financed with UTB, there was various other plant and machinery on finance agreements with other funders. These included a hook loader truck, excavators and a 4×4 vehicle. UTB obtained valuations on a number of the company’s assets and agreed a refinance package which provided the required cash injection. This would leave the business in good shape to manage any payment issues they may encounter over the rest of this year. The paperwork was signed and the deal was paid out with minimum fuss in just a few days.

Paul Taylor, BDM at United Trust Bank, commented:

“Businesses often have a significant amount of capital tied up in vehicles, plant and machinery and refinancing is a quick and efficient way of releasing cash for a number of purposes. In this instance, it was to give a successful business a six month cash flow safety net but it could also have been used to invest in new premises, to bid for new contracts or to acquire another company. We do a lot of refinance business at UTB on an increasingly wide range of assets and as we don’t have a restrictive age policy we can often quickly turn around proposals other funders wouldn’t even consider.”

Loan size: £120,000

Term: 18 months