Santander aiming to lure SMEs with £200m

Santander aiming to lure SMEs with £200m

Santander is looking to attract small to medium businesses with a package of measures designed to boost their growth.

The bank hosted an event in Newcastle yesterday to showcase its Breakthrough programme, which will make £200m available to high-growth businesses with a turnover of up to £10m.

On top of the money, Santander is also providing development opportunities such as international trade missions, visits to successful companies such as Google, and help in attracting and hiring talented graduates.

The Government has contributed £50m to this pool from its Regional Growth Fund.

“One of our major goals is to become the SME bank of choice”, said Santander CEO Ana Botin.

“The group we’re looking to help are the growth champions of Britain. This is where we could offer the most help and have the most impact.”

Read full article.

Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) launches today

Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme Launches Today

As confirmed in last month’s budget, the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) launches today.

The Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) is designed to help small, early-stage companies to raise equity finance by offering a range of tax reliefs to individual investors who purchase new shares in those companies. It complements the existing Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) which will continue to offer tax reliefs to investors in higher-risk small companies. SEIS is intended to recognise the particular difficulties which very early stage companies face in attracting investment, by offering tax relief at a higher rate than that offered by the existing EIS.

So who is eligible?

The criteria for eligibility for the funding is as follows:

• The business must be new, or 2 years old or less, with fewer than 25 employees. It must have less than £200,000 of gross assets and not quoted on a stock market.
• Directors or executives cannot use the scheme to invest in their own companies.
• You can raise up to £150,000 of funding through the SEIS, but mustn’t have already raised any money under EIS or venture capital trust (VCT) schemes. This is in total not per year.

Further information:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/seedeis/index.htm

http://www.companypartners.com/blog/2012/03/14/seis-start-up-investment/

http://www.companypartners.com/blog/2012/03/21/seis-seed-enterprise-investment-scheme/

UK Government to Invest £75 Million in Small Business Innovation and Technology

The government is dangling a £75m carrot in front of SMEs to encourage them to invest in technology.

Several incentives intended to spur companies to innovate and grow have been published as part of the government’s Innovation and Research Strategy, which reveals that funding to support technology innovation will be delivered by the Technology Strategy Board.

Read more: http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn-uk/news/2131096/government-stumps-gbp75m-encourage-smb-tech-investment#ixzz1gKZ63SVe

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The UK needs alternative solutions for SME funding

The previous few years have been a rocky road for the UK’s banks. UK SMEs have felt the effects of the stumbles in the banking industry more than most, with bank lending to the SME sector becoming especially restrained in an economic environment that has heightened the need for working capital to support day to day business operations.

However, although generally failing to meet the credit needs of SMEs the big 4 UK banks (Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays and HSBC still manage to retain nearly 80% of all SME accounts.

Read full article.

For some innovative funding solutions, take a look at the following:

£500k interest free loan

Funding from 0.9-2%

Loan application successes down to 65%

The Treasury has come under renewed pressure to persuade British banks to lend to small businesses after official data revealed a sharp drop in companies’ access to finance.

There was a steep fall in the number of businesses that were successful in their attempts to get loans last year, to 65% from 90% in 2007, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The data also showed the number of fast-growing businesses that felt banks were now less willing to lend was 15 times higher than those that thought the situation had improved.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/oct/28/small-businesses-failing-loans?newsfeed=true

At last – a funding lifeline for the SME market place

A new UK bank has launched with a pledge to loan £250m in 2012 to cash-strapped SMEs that have been denied credit by the big four high street lenders.

A survey of more than 800 SMEs by Shawbrook revealed that 89% believe banks do not use common sense when making decisions about business loan applications, while 45% feel banks are too bureaucratic when dealing with SMEs.

Shawbrook chief executive Owen Woodley, a 20-year veteran of Barclays, said the bank would aim to change that by making it easier and more straightforward for credit-worthy SMEs to borrow.

Read full article.

Banks Aren’t Lending – So What Do You Do?

There are an increasing number of stories in the press about the lack of funds being made available for small businesses.

So what is a small business to do if funds are required to help with growth plans or support cash flow?

Well, in the current climate there are a number of innovative cschemes coming to the market that could well provide alternative sources of funding for small businesses. Recently there have been £500k interest free loans and invoice funding from 0.9-2%; all of which are viable options for small businesses.

If you’re unsure of the different sources of funding that are available, you may find the following article of interest: Different Types Of Funding

Cable increases pressure on banks to lend to SMEs

UK business secretary Vince Cable has announced that he wants all banks to publish lending figures to SMEs and to give full details of why customers are turned down for loans.

Cable warned that any banks who do not meet lending targets for small businesses are going to face new taxes on bonuses, profits and balance sheets. He told MPs that Project Merlin was a one-year project and that banks must ensure that targets for the year are met.

He said to the House of Commons that extra pressure would be put on banks to ensure transparency in their actions towards SMEs. Banks in the UK have insisted that the current low lending rate to small businesses is due to lack of demand, not loan refusals. However, Cable argues that banks have discouraged applications by offering high rates and not showing interest in lending.

Read more: http://www.inspiresme.co.uk/news/general/cable-increases-pressure-on-banks-to-lend-to-smes-02847/

Should the Green Investment Bank support SMEs?

We are told small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hold the key to our economic recovery, yet lack of credit continues to be a major barrier to small business growth.

It’s also clear green innovation isn’t the silver bullet for meeting tough carbon emission reduction targets in the UK. Indeed, much of our success in moving to a low carbon economy will depend on adoption of existing green technologies. So should the Green Investment Bank (GIB), which is being established to address “market failures” in the green sector, tackle these ones?

Money, Money, Money

embedded by Embedded Video

I work all night, I work all day, to pay the bills I have to pay
Ain’t it sad
And still there never seems to be a single penny left for me
That’s too bad
In my dreams I have a plan
If I got me a wealthy man
I wouldn’t have to work at all, I’d fool around and have a ball

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man’s world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man’s world
…..
(Copyright Abba)

Maybe you are not an Abba fan, some may think that money is the root of all evil and I’m sure that wealth doesn’t necessarily bring you health and happiness; however I do believe that money does make the world go round – certainly in the business world.

Working in the SME market, cash is the killer of small businesses; the inability to maintain adequate cashflow and know where you stand with money coming in and, possibly more importantly, going out is essential for business success.

To help with all finance matters, I have put together an article relating to key considerations to prevent your business from failing: Essential Business Advice Tips: Finance.

I welcome your comments and feedback.