Finance company

Facts

• Building and projects company
• Expended £200,000 in R&D
• Suffered a large bad debt
• Main dealer vehicle finance outstanding with PGs

Background
A specialist building and projects company had traded successfully for 10 years but had over spent on R&D on an innovative product which was attracting early sales interest. This put pressure on cash flow which became acute when a supplier let the company down on a large contract and the company had to step in and spend £100,000 to put faulty work right.

Problem
The sales pipeline was strong but the company had no cash and was forced into liquidation when HMRC rejected a Time To Pay proposal. The director’s family set up a NewCo which bought the business and assets and the directors wanted to keep the cars that had negative equity. But the main dealer in house finance company had other ideas and insisted that the vehicles be returned. At auction the vehicles would have sold for less than the outstanding finance leaving a claim of c£15,000 under the PGs (although the new company was willing to take the finance agreements on with no loss).

Solution
We were approached by the former directors/guarantors to negotiate with the main dealer vehicle finance company. That proved impossible but we introduced a specialist finance broker who arranged replacement finance within three days. The main dealer vehicle finance company was paid in full with no claim on the PGs.

Difference
Our relationship with the former directors made us the obvious people to help. We didn’t take no for an answer. It didn’t take much time and we made no charge – it is all part of the service.