£15 million for South West businesses up for grabs

Published by

Nicky Godding

Independent business lender White Oak has revealed it has £15 million to lend to businesses across the South West of England as part of the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

Delivered through British Business Bank accredited lenders, CBILS is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses (SMEs) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The scheme enables lenders to provide facilities of up to £5 million to smaller businesses across the UK which are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow.

White Oak offers borrowing from £75,000 to £5 million over either 12 or 24-months. Interest on a CBILS facility is covered by the Government for 12 months. Additionally, White Oak customers are offered a payment holiday of up to 12-months, enabling them to recover from the crisis without the immediate financial burden of repayments.

Andy Davies, Managing Director of Loans & Leases at White Oak, said: “The South West region hosts a vibrant SME community and we’re excited to support those businesses as they aim to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. The CBILS deadline fast approaches and we’re confident that our straightforward lending approach with on-demand local expertise means that SMEs get the support they need when they need it.”

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) is managed by the British Business Bank on behalf of, and with the financial backing of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and industrial Strategy (BEIS).

White Oak has been lending to UK businesses since 1986 through the former LDF Group which was acquired in 2018 by White Oak Global Advisors, LLC, on behalf of its institutional clients.

In the last five years, the business has lent more than £1.5 billion from its own balance sheet to UK businesses to over 45,000 customers.

White Oak currently supports more than 20,000 SME clients in the UK.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.