Sirius Finance has completed an £8m revolving credit facility to fund the refinancing of a portfolio of commercial and mixed-use assets.

The loan, secured on a portfolio of 24 shops, restaurants, offices, holiday lets and a dry cleaners, was used to release equity to fund further expansion of the client’s portfolio.

An issue to overcome was that all the properties were held within a family trust spanning 35 years.

Kelly Rule from Sirius worked with the clients well in advance of the expiration of the existing funding arrangement to find a lender that was comfortable with the structure of the portfolio and ensure the new loan was in place on a five-year fixed rate at 5.47%.

Rule (pictured), senior associate at Sirius Finance, said: “The clients were keen to expand their portfolio and were being offered new properties regularly, but were being out bid by cash buyers so they needed a solution.

“I recommended a revolving credit facility – refinance the existing debt of £3.5m in the first instance and then providing a pre-agreed facility that could be on standby to finance new opportunities, with funds available to draw down in 48 hours. Th maximum credit facility on offer was £6.75m but the clients opted for a conservative £4.5m to avoid over stretching themselves.

“The unique condition with this product is that no interest is charged on the pre agreed facility and there are no non-utilisation fees. The clients can now act as cash buyers with the ease of the simple drawdown as and when they require it.”