At Ortus we’ve always looked to take a highly flexible approach based on analysing financial statements and projections provided by the borrower.

So, we have always offered loan terms of up to 3 years. In this way borrowers are given a sensible amount of time to achieve their objectives.

Likewise, we often find that fully-retained interest can mean an insufficient net advance. Our view is that if it’s affordable there is no reason why businesses should not benefit by paying monthly.

Our most popular product will be a part retained, part serviced facility.

For example, a care home operator may be buying a closed home with a view to reopening it. It will take time to employ new staff and get the home fully occupied, so they would benefit from not having to find interest payments when the revenue isn’t there to support repayment.

Here we would typically retain the first six or nine months interest to allow time for the new business to become established before interest is due monthly.

Creating bespoke solutions to suit both the client, and us

Investors with unencumbered properties will often use bridging to help grow their portfolios, and SMEs can also use debt-free assets to provide working capital.

In our experience, clients will rarely want to draw the whole facility at once.

For example, a business may need £800,000 for working capital over the next year, but half of that will be required next month.

The perfect solution here is a facility for the full £800,000 with £400,000 advanced immediately and the balance on demand when needed. This is clearly more cost-effective for the borrower, while also exposing us to less risk.

Effectively, we are providing a revolving credit and overdraft-style facility that allows clients to borrow and repay at a time that suits them.

We’re seeing increasing demand for this type of flexible product.

Get in touch 

If you’d like to talk to us about our commercial lending proposition and how we can help you and your clients, speak to the Relationship Director in your local office.