Ultimate Finance hits new £100m double lending milestone

Asset-based lender Ultimate Finance has announced it has hit a new lending milestone with
both their Asset and Bridging loan books hitting £100m milestones each at the end of the
first quarter this year.

These milestones are part of the lender’s impressive overall first quarter performance for
2024:

• Record loan book of £342m at the end of Q1, up £60m (21%) on Q1 2023
• Providing £66m in new facilities during the first quarter, over double the same period
last year and with strong growth across all products.

Josh Levy, CEO at Ultimate Finance comments “We are proud to reach these significant
milestones in our Asset and Bridging loan books alongside continued strong performance
across the whole business. We have aspired to build a diversified multi-product asset-based
lending business with each of our product lines of sufficient scale and quality, and reaching
£100m individual loan book sizes is an important landmark in that journey.”

Andrew Ribbins, Managing Director of Asset Finance and Group Sales Director at Ultimate
Finance recalls the evolution of our Asset Finance offering “Our ambition back in 2010 was
to differentiate ourselves from others in the market, by offering excellent service to our
brokers and their clients, with quick decision making and payouts a core pillar of our
strategy. Scaling a loan book itself is hard enough, but doing so whilst maintaining book
quality with exceptional service standards is the biggest measure of success. We won’t be
resting on our laurels either as we continue to build our business capabilities and I very
much look forward to working with our brokers to support their client’s needs.”

Head of Bridging Finance Liam Cavanagh builds on this view “There have been two distinct
phases to our Bridging journey since launching in 2015, where initially we sought to find our
niche within the bridging finance landscape, through working with a few brokers and
growing organically. We learned a lot during this time, both good and challenging! In recent
years we have been singularly focused on our core residential offering with a product set to
match our ambitions. We are delighted to reach the £100m landmark to showcase our
strong growth trajectory that has come from having consistent appetite and an emphasis on
funding certainty and delivery, even through volatile market conditions. Our approach to
curate and expand our network of brokers across the country continues and I’m proud of
what we’ve achieved in reaching this significant milestone.”

CEO Josh Levy concluded “Our commitment remains strong to support the ambitions of
SMEs and property investors through providing access to the liquidity and funding solutions
they need. We are pleased to report a strong start to 2024 and take encouragement that our
strategy continues to deliver a growing market position.

The opportunity ahead is clear with specialist lenders increasingly playing a key role in our
markets. 2023 saw challenger banks and specialist lenders having a record 59% share of total
lending to SMEs, the 3rd consecutive year in which market share has been greatest away
from the largest five banks.

Our versatile asset-based solution offering, personalised service model, consistent appetite
and deep partnerships with our key introducers leaves us well placed to fulfil our future
ambitions along with those of our clients.”

Find out more about Ultimate Finance.