RDM Asset Finance has been rebranded as SME Asset Finance more
than one year after its takeover.
The move marks the beginning of the integration of SME Asset
Finance into its parent company, SME Invoice Finance Limited
(SMEIF).
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SMEIF, which specialises in invoice discounting and factoring
and cash-flow funding for small- and medium-sized businesses,
acquired RDM Factors Limited, which included RDM Asset Finance, in
late 2006. Since then, it has been run as an independent business,
although it will now be more closely aligned with its parent.
John Wilde, SMEIF’s sales and marketing director, said asset
finance sits comfortably alongside factoring and invoice
discounting, and the purchase of RDM’s asset finance arm fulfilled
a longstanding objective for the company.
“What we’ve found is that there is a demand not only for invoice
finance solutions, but, much more these days, for what is known as
asset-based-lending-type solutions across that marketplace,” said
Wilde.
Since the purchase, SMEIF has developed an asset-based
commercial lending proposition, SME Advantage, through which, with
SME Asset Finance, it delivers asset finance to its customers.
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By GlobalData“We can offer a genuine one-stop shop to small owner-managed
businesses looking to optimise or maximise their commercial funding
opportunities,” said Wilde.
SME Asset Finance built its reputation and market niche in the
independent broker market, and it will continue to serve this
market, Wilde said. At the same time, there are plans to extend its
service provisions to SMEIF’s existing customers.
While the asset finance business was acquired in December 2006,
it remained a standalone and discrete one. It was run from its own
business premises in Birmingham as SMEIF integrated a significant
factoring and discounting book – in the region of £25m-£30m of
loans outstanding at the time of purchase, plus 250 customers and
50-60 staff – which it had acquired when it bought RDM.
“Twelve months in, we felt it was an opportune time to rebrand
and to begin the process of fully integrating that company in the
new group,” said Wilde.
SMEIF was set up in January 2000 by Wilde and its managing
director David Hogg. It is privately funded and has grown both
organically and through acquisition. It has around 100 staff and
1,000 customers. Its head office is in Guildford and it has
operational centres in Sheffield, Brentwood and Birmingham.
