Member Article

£40M pandemic help advised by Garbutt + Elliott to protect businesses and jobs

More than £40m in loans to dozens of businesses and payments to hundreds of workers during the coronavirus pandemic, are being handled by Yorkshire accountants and business advisers, Garbutt + Elliott.

Work on £30m of loans through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, (CBILS) and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS), as well as other financial assistance, has been underway since the start of the lockdown in March.

An additional £10m of payments to workers under the Job Retention Scheme is being arranged by the firm’s payroll department.

The business loans, ranging between £100,000 and several million pounds, have been negotiated with the funders by the corporate finance team at Garbutt+Elliott for existing clients and referred businesses throughout the UK in sectors including retail, leisure, hospitality, manufacturing, waste management and construction.

Head of Garbutt + Elliott corporate finance team, partner, Tony Farmer, says: “The Office for National Statistics’ confirmation that the UK economy shrank by 20.4 per cent in April, shows how dramatic the lockdown has been for UK businesses and how essential these loans are.

“It is not just headline sectors, such as restaurants, hotels and leisure attractions, which have been badly affected but also their own suppliers, many of which have struggled to find ways to stay in business.

“There is far more to securing these loans than filling in an application form and businesses should not consider them a quick fix. They must be part of a medium-term business strategy with detailed planning about future performance and repayment capability as no one knows how long the pandemic uncertainties will continue.

“The business interruption loan schemes have not, so far, been taken up as they should have been because the pandemic spread so fast that the banks had to divert resources, including staff, from elsewhere which placed a great strain on them and delayed consideration of some applications.”

The entire 12-strong Garbutt + Elliott corporate finance team has been busy arranging CBILS and CLBILS with advice on the banks’ perspective from former high street bankers in the team, David Streather and Neil Williams, as well as working on general corporate finance transactions.

Tony Farmer adds: “We are continuing to secure business interruption loans scheme work by helping create a detailed case on each applicant’s projected performance and repayment capability, enabling lenders to make a prompt decision. Our successful approach is also leading to new clients being referred to us for this purpose.”

Garbutt + Elliott’s corporate finance team, which has offices in York and Leeds, includes two partners and operates throughout the UK, advising on business valuations, company flotations, business exits, financial due diligence, finance raising and business sales and has more than 80 years’ combined experience comprising more than 220 deals across a wide range of commercial sectors.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mike Clarke Communications .