Investment

RNS Number : 3745J

GLI Finance Limited

16 July 2013

 



16 July 2013

GLI Finance Limited

 announces investment in Funding Knight Holdings Limited

GLI Finance Limited ("GLIF" or the "Company"), a specialist lender to small and medium sized enterprises today announces that it hasinvested £1.5m in the crowd lending platform, Funding Knight Holdings Limited ("FundingKnight").  The investment is in the form of equity and preference shares in FundingKnight, in return for which GLIF will own at least a 20% stake in FundingKnight. Geoff Miller, CEO of GLIF, has also joined the FundingKnight Board.

FundingKnight provides a web platform for crowd lending and matches people wanting to earn a better return on their savings with small British businesses seeking to widen their access to funding. FundingKnight offers loans of between £25,000 and £100,000 for periods of up to three years. Funding is available to UK based businesses with at least 2 years' trading history and accounts. FundingKnight vets the applications and gives all business loans a shield rating to help investors evaluate the risk.  FundingKnight has already passed over £1 million in lending and completed over 1,000 transactions on its Loan Exchange which provides a secondary market for investing in or realising loans.

Geoff Miller, CEO of GLI Finance, said: "This investment is a perfect fit within our strategy of focusing on niche lending to SMEs and adding further geographical diversification to our business by expanding further in Continental Europe and the UK.  We are delighted that Graeme and his team have chosen to partner with us and GLIF looks forward to building on this investment by also participating in new lending and in FundingKnight's Loan Exchange."

Graeme Marshall, CEO and founder of FundingKnight, commented: "We are excited to have GLI Finance as a significant investor and partner in our business.  Crowd lending is set to become a global market and, in the UK alone, crowd lending has now passed £0.5 billion.  There is excellent complementarity between GLIF's other loan platforms and our business and we look forward to working with Geoff and his wider team."

For further information, please contact:

Geoffrey Miller

Greenwich Loan Income Fund Limited

[phone]

[phone]

Graeme Marshall

Funding Knight Holdings Limited

[phone]

Investec Bank plc

Tim Mitchell

Jeremy Ellis

[phone]

Panmure Gordon

Dominic Morley

Fred Walsh

[phone]

Ed Gascoigne Pees

FTI Consulting

[phone]

Notes to editors

About GLI Finance - GLIF is a specialist lender to small and medium sized enterprises and is quoted on AIM and the CISX.  GLIF both invests in loans to SMEs and originates loans to SMEs. SME loan investment is currently primarily in US senior secured loans of mid-market size mainly via CLO equity holdings. SME loan origination, primarily in the UK, and was established through the acquisition of BMS Finance in November 2012.

The strategy for GLI Finance, remains as it has been for the past three years:

·      Focus on secured lending to small and medium sized enterprises

·      Diversify that lending across geographies and types of business;

·      Drive down cost/income ratio;

·      Optimise capital structure.

About FundingKnight - FundingKnight provides a web platform for crowd lending.  The website matches people wanting to earn a better return on their savings with small British businesses seeking to widen their access to funding.

FundingKnight offers loans of between £25,000 and £100,000 for periods of up to three years. Funding is available to UK based businesses (limited companies or LLPs) registered at Companies House with at least 2 years' trading history and accounts. FundingKnight vets the applications and gives all business loans a shield rating to help investors evaluate the risk.

Investors register on the site for free and can lend to British businesses from as little as £25. Each business loan is made up of many parts, each owned by an individual investor. Investors build portfolios, spreading their funds across many different business loans to reduce risk. Investors who have participated in all the loans offered through the FundingKnight crowd lending website have earned an average rate on closing of the auctions of 11.2% p.a.

 

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