General Capital - Annual Report 2006:
General Capital is a specialist lending group providing innovative and flexible funding solutions to UK
SME’s in the range of £10k to £1m. We provide a range of lending solutions designed to meet the needs
of businesses which are overlooked by mainstream lenders.
The group adopts an holistic approach to credit underwriting, assessing the clients business performance
and strength of management as well as the underlying asset security for any given transaction. General
Capital’s flexibility and speed of decision making is a key competitive advantage in this sector and the
Group now provides loan facilities to over 1,000 clients across the UK.
The group has a diverse loan portfolio with its lending activities organised into three principal trading
divisions; Commercial Asset Finance, Property Finance and Venture Finance.
Commercial Asset Finance
Our Commercial Asset Finance Division provides finance facilities in the range of £10k to £1m secured
against the tangible assets used within a clients business. Typically these assets are either (i) central
to the revenue production of the business or (ii) assets which have strong residual values. Finance is
provided in the form of commercial loan, hire purchase or finance lease agreements where the group
assumes no residual value risk.
Property Finance
Our Property Finance Division is a specialist lender providing finance to small well established property
developers. Funding is provided by short term property secured loans in the range of £25k to £1m.
Examples include:
l Development (new-build, refurbishment or conversion) – we will consider stage funding of up
to 100% of the development costs to assist a developers cash flow requirements. Loan to (end)
value is typically capped at 75% but each proposal is individually underwritten to ensure sufficient
appropriate security is obtained, either exclusively on the development property or supported by
another UK freehold property.
l M ezzanine – we will consider mezzanine facilities for experienced developers who need additional
finance over and above that already provided by mainstream lenders.
l Bridging and refinancing – we will consider short term loan facilities to bridge clients into more
appropriate longer term financing arrangements.
Venture Finance
Our Venture Finance Division provides structured finance facilities of between £100k and £1m to
support growing and entrepreneurial businesses in the UK SME sector. Typically secured on tangible
assets, although not exclusively, finance is provided in the form of standard lease and commercial loan
agreements and is supported with tailored security arrangements including debentures and personal
guarantees.
These structured finance facilities are designed to assist in filling the ‘equity gap’ between early stage
seed capital and the institutional funds available to more mature businesses. Equity participation is
typically negotiated alongside the provision of these facilities and this is normally by way of equity
warrants or nominal subscriptions at par.
Group overview
Report & Financial Statements 2006 / Page
