SME finance provider Reward Funding has completed a £360 million refinancing deal as part of its plan to grow its loan book to £500m over the next three years.
The deal includes a £100m private securitisation from an international bank, a £150m senior debt facility from Quilam Capital, and £110m in new funding from existing partners Foresight and RMB.
The transaction partially refinances Reward’s existing debt facilities while also providing additional liquidity and flexibility to support its continued expansion.
The increased lending capacity is designed to help businesses seeking funding for growth, innovation, or new market opportunities.
Nick Smith (pictured), group managing director for Reward, said: “Being able to bolster our credit lines by a further £360m is a hugely significant deal for the business and will also benefit those companies which rely on our support to fund expansion in challenging economic conditions. It gives us such a strong foundation to achieve our goal of a £500m loan book within three years.
“Our whole ethos is built around working closely with entrepreneurs and SMEs to fund their ambition and offer a fast, agile funding solution that enables them to seize opportunities when they arise. This can only be made possible by the strength of our lending, and being on course to provide our busiest year of lending gives our new and existing clients that much-needed confidence and certainty in what remains an uncertain climate.”
David Harrop, group finance director for Reward, also welcomed the new funding:
“Successfully raising this level of institutional funding is a testimony to the business we have built at Reward. We look forward to working with our new and existing funding partners to provide further support to UK SMEs.”
Quilam Capital, one of the key funding partners, said it was committed to Reward’s future growth. Jordan Blakesley, managing director at Quilam Capital, said: “Reward is a distinguished specialist lender that provides tailored asset-secured facilities to UK entrepreneurs and businesses.
“Our relationship with management spans almost 10 years and we are delighted to be supporting Reward’s growth journey with the first senior credit transaction following the announcement of our strategic JV with J.P. Morgan earlier in the month.”
Jack Dutton, director at Interpath, who led the transaction alongside Olivia Dunning and Niamh Valentine from Interpath’s Debt Advisory team, added: “We have worked closely with Reward to understand their operational model and put in place a capital strategy that would allow them to continue to offer the flexible, dependable, and rapid approach to funding which has given them a pivotal role in the funding landscape for the SME community.
“It has been an absolute pleasure working with the team on this transformational financing, which introduces new institutional funding partners to the business.”
