Praetura Asset Finance’s lending book reached £100m (€114.8m) in December 2016, after a 38% year-on-year increase.

The Blackburn-based lender also saw cases increase by 24%, and reached the £100m in lending after three years.

The increase in lending was represented most strongly in the South of England, where it rose by 49%. Among Praetura’s clients were a Scottish provider of welfare cabins and an Essex-based waste management company. Mike Hartley, managing director, also announced plans to triple Praetura’s business development team in the South East in January 2017, to continue to expand.

Hartley said: “The growth we’re experiencing proves the viability of the way Praetura works as a business.

“The appetite for the market to continue to grow is there, with more and more businesses now aware of and choosing asset finance as a solution.”