£1m+ Acquisition — Trading Engineering Business

01

Client Situation

The owner of a foundry business with an 11-year trading history identified an opportunity to acquire a complementary castings-engineering company that had become distressed. The two businesses fitted together well, but the opportunity would not stay open for long — and it needed proper due diligence on the premises, machinery, raw materials and debtor book before any commitment.

02

The Challenge

This was not a single loan. Acquiring the business required funding across several lines at once — for the property, the plant and machinery, and day-one working capital — arranged quickly enough to secure the deal without cutting corners on valuations or the sales-ledger review.

03

Lender Considerations

A multi-line acquisition of this kind depends on lenders across commercial mortgage, asset finance and invoice finance moving in step. Each needs to be comfortable with the security in its part of the structure, and the overall package has to hold together as one coherent proposition.

04

Structure Used

We organised the valuations and a sales-ledger audit within three weeks and structured a facility of over £1m: a 30-year commercial mortgage against the premises, 5-year asset finance secured on the machinery, and 80% non-recourse factoring against roughly £150,000 of debtor invoices to fund working capital from day one.

06

Key Lessons