ASSET FINANCE Feature
Praetura Group celebrates record-breaking start to 2022
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raetura Group’s lending division announced strong growth across all aspects of its portfolio in the first quarter of this year, recording its highest ever lending levels for any year’s first three months since the company was founded in 2011. The combined loanbook of the five businesses in Praetura’s lending division grew from £200 mn to over £251 mn, the group said. Praetura Asset Finance and Kingsway Finance lent over £20.7 mn in Q1 through asset finance and term loan facilities to SMEs across the UK, predominantly delivered through their partnership relationships with broker networks. The North West-based Praetura Group offers SMEs an alternative to traditional institutional lenders, supporting clients across almost every sector and providing funds between £5,000 and £20 mn to help businesses meet their own strategic objectives. Praetura Asset Finance has seen a 20 per cent increase in the number of deals written in Q1 2022, including year-on-year growth of 48 per cent in asset refinance facilities.
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At Kingsway Finance, the funding provided largely centred around delivery of their recovery loan scheme term loan facilities, assisting a 13 per cent year-on-year growth in the number of deals written. This followed its accreditation to the scheme by the British Business Bank in 2021. Praetura Commercial Finance (PCF), which also provides asset-based lending solutions to SMEs, saw a 300 per cent increase in new origination introductions in the first quarter of the year and provided funding totalling £16 mn, using a combination of invoice discounting, property, equipment, and cashflow lending. Total facilities provided by PCF to SMEs are now in excess of £130 mn. After being founded by Praetura Group in the summer of 2021, Praetura Invoice Finance’s first Q1 saw over £4 mn of funding go to SMEs across a range of sectors including engineering, manufacturing, forensics, electric vehicles, and even artisan spirits production. Over half of the deals written included collaborative funding solutions with other companies within Praetura Group’s lending division, combining invoice discounting and factoring with asset refinance and commercial loans. Recently, the Praetura Group added to its SME lending offering when it announced the acquisition of Chester-based Zodeq, an invoice finance business specialising in the recruitment sector. Peadar O’Reilly, managing director of Praetura Group’s lending division, said that the range of businesses its funding is assisting continues to expand. “The record figures are proof that our relationship-led approach to funding is valued by SMEs and the brokers and advisers we work in partnership with,” O’Reilly pointed out. “Now more than ever, SMEs need the support of funders that can adapt to specific individual circumstances. We have built talented teams throughout the Praetura Group that provide exactly that.”
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