ThinCats raises minimum investment to £1m
Business lender ThinCats has raised its minimum loan threshold to £1m.
In the company’s most recent annual review, chief executive Amany Attia said that ThinCats had raised its minimum loan size to £1m for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to £2m for management buy-ins (MBIs).
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Attia explained that the increase was required to help support ThinCats’ expanding network of origination and credit offices across the UK. The platform’s maximum loan size remains at £15m.
“The clear market gap which we now serve encourages us to invest further in improving our market offering,” said Attia.
“This is why we have been expanding our network of origination and credit offices across the UK so that we can better serve the regional communities of business advisers. Given the resource needed to deliver this increased investment, we have increased our minimum loan size.”
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Attia added that ThinCats has a “very strong pipeline of transactions” for the first quarter of 2020, which “shows that UK businesses remain keen to invest in their futures and, perhaps, feel a bit more confident given some easing of the political deadlock surrounding Brexit.”
The annual review confirmed that 2019 was a record year for the platform in terms of the amount of funding that was provided and the number of businesses which were funded. The average transaction size was £2.2m last year, and the majority of deals were conducted in London and the South East.
However, the company is now focusing on growing its presence in the Midlands and North East of England, having opened new offices in Sheffield and Glasgow last year, and moving to a larger office in Birmingham.
In Spring 2020 ThinCats will open its first office in Manchester.
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