Apr 16

Asset Finance and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)

Posted: 16 April 2020 by admin

We hope you, your family and colleagues are well and staying safe at this challenging time.

As a valued customer and introducer to Affinity Asset Finance Limited we wanted to reassure you that we continue to offer funding solutions to businesses of every size across the UK and continue to operate as we have done for the last 10+ years, utilising our extensive funding panel of over 50 lenders.

As specialists in Asset Finance we can fund any type of asset your business may be purchasing and regularly work with Sole Traders and Partnerships as well as Limited Companies & PLC’s. From plant and machinery to IT Equipment, cars and HGV’s we can fund it all– a list is detailed below for your reference

Types of Asset – New & Used

  • Plant & Machinery (e.g. Print presses, forklift trucks, CNC machinery, production lines).
  • Cars & Fleets (e.g. Anything from a Small Ford KA to a £250K + Ferrari etc).
  • Light Commercial vehicles (e.g. Small/large Vans, minibuses).
  • HGV’s (e.g. Lorries, trailers of any shape or size).
  • Construction (e.g. Yellow plant – diggers / dumpers, crushing equipment, earth movers).
  • Buses & Coaches.
  • Agricultural equipment (e.g. Tractors, combine harvesters, rotavators)
  • Aviation and Marine (All private yachts and jets / light aircraft – Nothing that can be used for Commercial use)
  • IT Equipment (e.g. Servers, base units and screens, software, plasma screens etc – most deals over £10K).

What is the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)?

  • As an established and experienced intermediary we have access to the Governments CBILS scheme, the objective of which is to continue to support businesses across the UK who need to continue to invest in business assets in order to continue operating.
  • The CBILS is a new scheme that can provide facilities for a range of Business Finance products to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow. 

How is this different from ‘Asset Finance’ for purchasing a variety of business assets?

  • The CBILS scheme provides our accredited lenders with a government-backed guarantee potentially enabling us to provide Asset Finance facilities to support your investment in new and used assets. 
  • In the absence of the CBILS scheme, some businesses would ordinarily have difficulty raising such finance due to the impacts of COVID-19 as they would likely fall outside of the funders’ normal appetite. 
  • You may also benefit from no guarantee fee to access the scheme and interest and other fees will be covered by the Government for the first 12 months.
  • The Government will make a Business Interruption Payment to help cover the majority of interest and any lender-levied fees in the first 12 months of any CBILS facility, so businesses will benefit from lower upfront costs and lower initial repayments.

Criteria

  • Be UK based in its business activity with annual turnover of no more than £45m
  • Application must be for business purposes
  • Business must generate more than 50% of its turnover from trading activity so cannot be a ‘shell’ company
  • CBILS-backed facility will be used to support primarily trading in the UK
  • Borrow between £50k and £250k – we can look at funding in excess of £250k but terms may vary
  • Finance terms between 12 and 60 months
  • Business must not be in financial difficulty prior to the COVID-19 outbreak
  • Agreement types considered: hire purchase, finance lease, sale and HP/lease back only

Can I refinance my existing Assets

  • Yes, if you have assets you currently own we can look to refinance and/or restructure the debt to meet your needs and still potentially qualify for the CBILS

We wish you well and if you want to discuss any funding needs please do not hesitate to contact us.

Stay Safe!

Tom & Neil