The Davenham Group is another lender
which has ridden the wave of the credit crunch with confidence and
skill, reporting a strong turnover increase of 33 per cent to £26m
for the six months ended December 31 2007.
Davenham, the specialised SME lender and financier with asset
finance, trade finance and property finance divisions, also
recorded pre-tax profit growth of 17 per cent to £6.1m for
half-year December 2007, and a loan portfolio increase of 35 per
cent to £289m for the same period.
The trade finance division in particular, which provides working
capital, invoice discounting and factoring, is benefiting from the
market turmoil, as banks’ put a credit ‘squeeze’ on an increasing
number of SMEs. Davenham has sufficient liquidity to dispense into
asset-based lending-style transactions; it offers between £100k and
£4m for SMEs to pay off overdrafts and loans.

Overall, the Group’s secured lending model and continued support
by banking facilities until December 2009 has also helped it
surpass these primary market shockwaves.
Chief executive David Coates said: “Our loan portfolio reached
record levels while our bad debt charge outperformed our long term
targets…we expect the benefits of increased new business
opportunities and more attractive margins resulting from tightening
of credit available to our SME client base to be balanced against
greater caution amongst many of our clients in a less certain
economic environment.”