Specialist lender United Trust Bank has stepped in to refinance a rare car in order to save a development deal…

UTB’s asset finance team was approached by a frustrated introducing broker who had just been let down by another funder on a refinance of a rare classic car...

The money was to be used to secure a development opportunity, and therefore time was of the essence.

While the broker had already received a formal acceptance for the facility from another lender, including signed documents, he was told that the funder’s credit team had added a further condition and were insisting on another legal document being created.

This caused potential delay in the client’s ability to negotiate the development deal.

In order to safeguard his customer, the broker contacted UTB to look at the deal quickly, upon which UTB conditionally accepted the refinance proposal.

The broker was then able to advise the client of the last minute change to the original deal, while knowing the contingency acceptance was in place with UTB.

The deal was completed and £400,000 was paid out only a few days after the original request.

“Although one would usually expect the funds for a development opportunity to come from UTB’s bridging or development finance departments, this isn’t the first time UTB has refinanced a non-property asset, in this case a classic car, to fund a property deal,” commented Martin Nixon, Head of Asset Finance at United Trust Bank.

“This example demonstrates the wide variety of uses to which funds secured against vehicles, plant and engineering machinery can be put when the circumstances demand a swift solution.”