United Trust Bank (UTB) Asset Finance has completed a complex £625,000 refinance to enable a business acquisition.
Mike Austin, Director of Crystal Business Finance, approached Paul Barter, Business Development Manager at United Trust Bank, on behalf of his client, a successful and expanding coach operator. The client wished to raise £625,000 to purchase another coach operator and wanted to refinance some of their fleet to release the capital. However, what made this transaction unusual was that the client needed to also refinance some of the coaches owned by the company they were buying.
The case was underwritten by Rob Irving, UTB’s roving AF Underwriter for the North of England, and was subject to satisfactory valuations and proof of title on seven vehicles. Securing proof of title on all the vehicles was a challenge with some missing documents and invoices, but cooperation between the teams at Crystal and UTB lead to an acceptable solution.
Once agreed, UTB arranged to send the funds directly to the clients’ solicitor dealing with the business purchase who provided UTB with a letter of undertaking that the funds were held to UTB’s order. Upon completing the purchase and transfer of assets, the solicitors released the funds to the vendors of the business being acquired and provided confirmation to UTB.
Mike Austin, Director of Crystal Business Finance, said: “This wasn’t a straightforward case, but I talked to Paul Barter at UTB and he quickly confirmed that they would be able to do it. Once our client was ready to go ahead, Rob Irving completed the underwriting and UTB’s Operations team completed all the admin, processing and arrangements with the solicitors to enable my client’s acquisition to proceed.”
Paul Barter, Business Development Manager at United Trust Bank, said: “We pride ourselves on being able to take on more complex deals which benefit from having direct communication with our underwriters from the start. Thanks very much to Mike for giving us the opportunity to show what UTB are capable of and for the excellent support we received from him and the Crystal team in getting this deal over the line.”