Lichfield and Leicester accountancy practice, Inspired Accountants, is celebrating with their client Jerome Rendering after helping them secure a £150,000 investment.
Jerome Rendering required the investment after successfully securing a contract with Lovell Partnership Ltd to increase the energy efficiency rating of 240 houses under the control of Cannock Chase District Council. The investment was needed to enable the company to purchase materials and pay their subcontractors whilst the contract funding from Lovell Partnership cleared.
After six weeks of negotiations with a high street bank failed to secure the loan, Paul Bulzacchelli, MD at Inspired Accountants approached Ludgate Finance, who together helped broker a deal with ThinCats’ peer-to-peer loan network in under a week.
Commenting on this, Paul Bulzacchelli said: “Funding for small businesses through traditional means is still very restrictive and after the loan application for Jerome Rendering was refused I decided to look into the feasibility of peer-to-peer lending as we work closely with Ludgate Finance who act as a sponsor of the ThinCats peer-to-peer loan network.”
The ThinCats peer-to-peer loan network is a recognised commercial finance alternative to bank lending and works by bringing together private investors in syndicates to make loans to individual businesses. Borrowers can take out loans of between £50,000 and £3 million, at fixed competitive rates, for periods ranging from six months to five years.
Christian Jerome a director at Jerome Rendering said: “From the initial meeting with Ludgate Finance I could see that they were genuinely interested in our business and I left the meeting with every confidence that they would be able to provide access to the finance so long as we could substantiate what we had discussed in the meeting.”
Paul Bulzacchelli continued: “The process was relatively simple and straightforward. After meeting Ludgate Finance and working with them on the required due diligence and loan proposal, the finance was agreed within a week and just 24 hours after presenting the proposal to the lenders, the full £150,000 was in my client’s bank account.”
Steve Grice from Ludgate Finance said: “This situation is proof that when the banks say no there are still alternative streams of finance out there for small businesses. In fact I would urge all businesses looking to secure finance to not just rely on the traditional sources and to look at alternative sources of finance, which in the majority of cases offer a better rate than available from traditional high street lenders.”
