Use of asset-based finance has risen fivefold in UK in a decade
USE OF asset-based finance by the UK’s biggest businesses has grown by 16 per cent in the past year, rising from £4.4bn to £5.1bn.
Figures from the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA), the industry body for the UK and the Republic of Ireland, show there has been more than a fivefold increase on the £1bn in asset-based finance to businesses with an annual turnover of £100m or more 10 years ago.
Asset- based finance includes invoice finance, in which businesses secure funding against their unpaid invoices, and asset based lending, in which businesses can raise money secured against a range of other assets they own.
The ABFA said such lending allowed firms “to access the funding to help them make the most of the economic recovery, by expanding capacity or increasing investment in research & development.”
At the end of March 2014, 315 big businesses in the UK and Ireland were using asset-based finance, compared with 277 a year ago, and just 81 in 2004.