London credit specialist backs €4m space tech investment

A London credit specialist has supported a €4m investment in an international space technology company to support a new acquisition.

Alternative SME credit specialist Caple has helped Celestia Technologies Group to access a €4m eight-year unsecured cross border loan to support an acquisition and growth.

Celestia’s British company, based in Oxford, will use the first loan of €3m to support the development of a new satellite ground station in the UK for a European Space Agency project.

The firm’s Netherland-based company will use the second loan of €1m (£880k) to partly finance the acquisition of the satellite ground systems division of Antwerp Space Systems in Belgium.

Dominic Buch, co-founder and managing partner of Caple, said: “Celestia is an ambitious and growing international high-tech business.

“As a collection of SMEs based across Europe, the group needed a sophisticated cross-border loan to help it support UK growth and acquire a Belgium operation.

“Working closely with KPMG Debt Advisory, we have now twice helped the firm access long-term fully unsecured loans that are not ordinarily available to SMEs.

“Our unsecured lending deals demonstrate how we can support successful SMEs with finance to support growth across borders despite Brexit.”

Jose Alonso, founder of the Celestia Technologies Group, said: “We are very grateful to Caple for the trust placed in us.

“It takes guts to stick your neck out where traditional parties fail to do so. With this financing and loan, we look to the future with confidence.”