Reparo Finance: Client-Focused Lending

Reparo places significant importance on building long-term relationships with clients. As a key partner to your business, Reparo provides a quick and simple process so clients can do what they do best: running their businesses.

Often the circumstances of a loan aren’t straightforward, and traditional lenders take a long time to complete the lending process. Reparo specialises in reviewing, approving and completing loans fast – often in a matter of days, or even hours – when other lenders would take months.

In this article, we’re looking at a loan that involved multiple stakeholders, and a structure that needed updating throughout the process.

The Situation

Reparo were contacted by an insolvency practitioner working to assess the viability of a private school. The school was experiencing legal issues to keep running and needed £750,000 to survive the academic year.

Andrew Ward, Reparo’s Managing Director, visited the school to meet the management team and give them confidence that funding was available in the necessary timeframe.

Jason Cossey, Reparo’s Relationship Manager, explains the client’s predicament:

“It quickly became clear the school needed funds to operate for the next 12 months and give them much needed breathing space. With all the current challenges they were facing, both internally and externally, our loan would remove the uncertainty hanging over it and allow them to restructure to a more sustainable model. I felt a meeting with our MD Andrew would be helpful; our focus in the initial meeting was to explain how we work, understand the client’s needs and build a good professional relationship”.

The school had significant assets that they were able to use as security, but the major banks were unwilling to lend the required funds because of the structure of the company which owned the school, and the challenges they were facing.

The Solution

Because there were so many stakeholders involved in the process, it took time for the school to decide and approve its course of action.

A large part of Jason’s role was working with stakeholders to reassure them what was possible:

“Dealing with a school that is also a registered charity presented some unique challenges; the decision-making process was complicated by a large board of trustees and different levels of management. As a charity there were considerable governance and compliance requirements that needed to be met”.

Jason acknowledges this took time but is central to Reparo’s operating model: “We are different from other lenders because we work closely with our clients. This situation required us to build a relationship with the school so they could feel comfortable with the financing side of the situation. As the different stakeholders had questions or issues, I had to work with them to re-iterate how the process worked”.

Reparo needed to assess the security, and this was completed quickly. The normal due diligence checks needed to be completed twice because of a change of directors.

Because the school is registered as a charity, the loan process had to go through an independent body to sign off the documents.

The constant need to engage with stakeholders, the prolonged due diligence and the uncertainty hanging over the loan made it a challenging project for Jason. He summarises it as “being a loan where the most important elements we needed to bring were calmness, support, patience and expertise”.

The Outcome

A process that Jason initially expected to take a couple of weeks ended up taking over a month, however, the loan completed and school had the capital to keep the school operational.

This was an example of Reparo filling a void left by traditional lenders and giving organisations the cash they needed to realise their ambitions, and in this case deal with serious problems.

The school’s independent advisor had this to say about Reparo:

“Reparo was introduced to me as a small and dynamic team that would grasp my client’s requirements, act quickly and meet the needs of what was an extremely complicated and moving situation.

Without financing, and in double quick time, I have no doubt that my client would have seriously struggled. Reparo understood this and only requested information they actually needed. They were able to provide a competitive offer in a matter of days.

The Conditions Precedent was sensible considering the other financial and security demands being made. Within a couple of weeks we were able to enter into a legal briefing. Even when forecasts changed Reparo grasped the reasons, made adjustments and completed the funding right on time.

Everyone in the team at Reparo was pleasant, efficient and helpful. The solicitors that Reparo briefed were similarly efficient and the whole team adopted a “can-do” attitude.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Reparo to my clients”.

To discuss a loan between £10,000 and £1m, please get in touch with Jason, or one of the team on sales@reparofinance.co.uk  or 0161 451 5714.

You can find out more about us on our website:  www.reparofinance.co.uk