News

British Business Bank agrees new Enable Funding Facility with Tower Leasing to boost Asset Finance for smaller Businesses

  • ENABLE Funding programme facility will give Bracknell-based Tower Leasing access to a £25.5m line of asset finance

The British Business Bank has announced that it is providing a £25.5m facility to Tower Leasing. The transaction, made under the Bank’s ENABLE Funding programme, will allow Tower to provide additional asset finance to smaller businesses looking to acquire business critical assets to boost their growth.

Bracknell-based Tower Leasing, with a regional office in Tamworth, was founded in 1989. It has extensive experience in providing finance to smaller businesses all over the UK, with a particular focus on finance leases for business and office equipment. The new facility announced today will allow Tower Leasing to grow and diversify its funding base.

Bernie Skivington, Director, Guarantee & Wholesale Solutions at the British Business Bank, said:

“Our ENABLE Funding programme is an important part of our support to smaller asset finance providers like Tower Leasing as they scale up their lending to smaller businesses, helping them invest in the equipment they need to grow and succeed. This latest transaction is another great example of how we are increasing both the amount and diversity of funding available to these smaller finance providers.”

Kerry Howells, Chief Executive Officer at Tower Leasing said:

“Tower Leasing are delighted to announce that we have secured a new funding facility via the British Business Bank Plc ENABLE programme. Lending to SMEs runs through Tower’s DNA and the ENABLE funding represents a significant milestone in Tower’s development. The facility supports our aspirations for continued growth and to broaden our offering, gaining further traction into the SME marketplace.”

As part of British Business Bank’s key objective to diversify finance markets for smaller UK businesses, the ENABLE Funding programme helps smaller providers of business finance to do more. These providers often lack the scale required to access capital markets – a key source of funding for lending institutions – in a cost-efficient manner. ENABLE Funding warehouses newly-originated finance receivables from a number of smaller business finance providers.

ENDS


British Business Bank

James Pignon, MHP Communications, +44 20 3128 8755, bbb@mhpc.com

Scott Shearer, British Business Bank, Scott.Shearer@british-business-bank.co.uk

Tower Leasing

Vanessa Cheung, Tower Leasing, 01753 837077, Vanessa@towerleasing.co.uk

 

Notes to Editors

About Tower Leasing

Established since 1989, Tower Leasing Ltd is a finance broker and funder which aims to assist companies across the UK with acquiring capital and equipment through asset finance. Tower Leasing creates an opportunity for businesses to manage their cash flow, whilst securing the assets and technology which allows them to stay competitive within the market. Tower Leasing also provide additional funding to support business growth with a wide range of finance solutions.

Tower have arranged funding for over 60,000 SME’s across the full spectrum of industry/sector types and trading styles, from brand new start sole traders, to blue chip PLCs.

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK’s national economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Our remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank is currently supporting over 59,000 businesses, working through its 90 finance partners. Its programmes support over £3.4bn of finance to UK smaller businesses and participate in a further £5.8bn of finance to UK small mid-cap businesses.

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options, including asset finance, available to smaller businesses. It has published the Business Finance Guide (in partnership with the ICAEW, and a further 21 business and finance organisations). This guide impartially sets out the range finance options available to businesses – from start-ups to SMEs and growing mid-sized companies. Take the interactive journey at www.thebusinessfinanceguide.co.uk or download/print a copy.

As the holding company of the group operating under the trading name of British Business Bank, it is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government which is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank operates under its own brand name through a number of subsidiaries, one of which is authorised and regulated by the FCA. ENABLE Funding is administered by British Business Financial Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Business Bank plc.

British Business Bank plc and its principal operating subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.

About the British Business Bank and Asset Finance

As well as supporting small Asset Finance providers through its commercial arm’s Investment programme, the British Business Bank helps Asset Finance providers to access capital markets funding more cost efficiently through its ENABLE Funding programme. It also recently introduced a new asset finance variant of its flagship Enterprise Finance Guarantee programme.

The British Business Bank/ICAEW/UK Finance guide to Asset Finance for advisers and businesses is downloadable from the British Business Bank website.