Better deals for business, says Barclays boss

Business Loans Case Study

Partnerships are the foundation for growth and Finance Yorkshire’s partnership with Barclays Corporate has resulted in two recent Sheffield based investments.

Andrew Marsh corporate director at Barclays Corporate, who is head of the bank’s South Yorkshire team, says the bank is going through a significant growth period and that the corporate team is helping local businesses access finance for growth.

He said: “There has been a lot of talk about banks providing access to finance for business, especially to small and medium sized companies. But the time for talking has passed - it is the delivery of funding that businesses want to see.

“A lot of banks are saying they are lending to businesses, but at Barclays we actually are providing finance to companies. Nationally, we are on course to meet our Project Merlin commitments having extended £20bn of new lending to business in the first half of the year, including £7bn to SMEs.

“We have also cemented our commitment to the Yorkshire area and in the last 12 months made a significant investment in Sheffield by moving our offices to St Paul’s Place in the city centre, as well as strengthening our corporate team with some significant hires.

“This investment in both facilities and people provides a foundation for us to build strong relationships with businesses and Finance Yorkshire.”

Tony Goulbourn from the business loans team at Finance Yorkshire said: “Finance Yorkshire works hard to fill the gaps in the market and the development of constructive relationship with Banks is vital. So when Barclays came to us with these two deals we responded quickly. These are great examples of how we can package deals to meet the needs of the client and their expansion plans.

“We believe that our partnerships with the Banks throughout Yorkshire and the Humber are a critical route to providing effective finance solutions for businesses. They provide the right conditions to package finance in a way that makes sense for businesses and banks, alike, with all parties winning”

Barclays Corporate support businesses with a turnover of more than £5million, right up to multi-national companies and work alongside Finance Yorkshire in helping to fill funding gaps in working capital and capital expenditure for companies looking to grow.

Andrew added: “We recently introduced two businesses to Finance Yorkshire, a marketing company which has just received a £150,000 business loan from Finance Yorkshire to fund part of their growth aspirations and a Sheffield based recruitment firm who received a £40,000 loan from Finance Yorkshire

“Having Finance Yorkshire to sign-post businesses to has added significant value to what we can offer our clients. It not only helps spread the risk of the loan, but provides the company with an alternate source for finance which offers sufficient facilities to expand or provide headroom.”

Helping a range of small and medium sized businesses to meet their funding requirements for growth and development, Finance Yorkshire provides seedcorn, loan and equity linked investments, ranging from £15,000 to £2m.

The project is supported financially by the European Union. It has attracted £30million investment from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of Europe’s support for the region’s economic development through the Yorkshire and Humber ERDF Programme, £15million from Yorkshire Forward’s Single Programme, and £45million match funding from the European Investment Bank.

For more information about Finance Yorkshire, please visit www.finance-yorkshire.com or ring 0845 649 0000.

Note: this case study is from Finance Yorkshire’s previous fund. Read more about Finance Yorkshire