Assetz Capital promises ‘significant CBILS funding’

Assetz Capital has said it has “significant coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) funding” to support businesses with the emergency loans up to March 2021.

The peer-to-peer business lender, which was accredited for CBILS in May, has revealed in its annual accounts for the 12 months to 31 March 2020 how it has navigated the pandemic.

The platform said it furloughed loan origination staff and reduced salaries by a “modest amount.”

Read more: Assetz Capital sifting through £300m CBILS pipeline

Its directors also agreed a 50 per cent salary reduction.

All furloughed staff and salaries have returned as of September 2020, according to the report, filed with Companies House.

“The company has undertaken a number of initiatives to ensure ongoing revenue generation during the pandemic and to return to loan origination as quickly as possible,” Mark Wardrop, chief operations officer at Assetz Capital, said.

“In May 2020 the company became CBILS-accredited and funds have now begun to be deployed.

“The company has significant CBILS funding investment as at September 2020 with much more in discussion and a satisfactory to good outcome for the year to March 2021 is presently forecast.”

Read more: Assetz Capital ‘working hard on new initiatives’ to boost liquidity

Assetz Capital’s loanbook grew more slowly in the 12 months to 31 March 2020, according to the results, with £261m originated compared with £296m in 2019.

This was attributed to reduced demand in the run up to Brexit and tightened lending criteria.

The annual results show revenue fell 4.4 per cent year-on-year to £16.2m but its gross profit was up 0.4 per cent to £11.3m.

Assetz Capital reported a pre-tax loss of £794,822, which was an improvement on the £866,269 the previous year.

Read more: Assetz hopes to resume lending in access accounts by end of 2020