Bergen Finance on track to lend £100m in first full-year of trading

Bergen Finance launched last December and is backed by Arrow Global.

In the first six months of trading, it lent £30m but then went on to lend £29m in Q3 alone.

The lender added that with transactions approved and in legals, it expects to close over £100m in its first year of trading.

It is headquartered in London and has offices in Leeds and Manchester, and provides loans between £500,000 and £50m.

Bergen Finance’s managing director Andrew Ward said: “We are finding that there are many viable businesses out there requiring finance, whether for growth and acquisition opportunities or for short-term cash flow, who, despite having significant land and property assets, are struggling to secure funding from traditional lenders.”

He added that its backing from Arrow Global meant it had “substantial funds behind us” and it was “able to be more flexible and agile”.

“We have proved able to support SMEs across England and Scotland, particularly for loans of £5m plus. We are also receiving a large number of enquiries from Ireland and are currently looking at a number of deals there,” Ward added.

Bergen Finance’s director Adrian Hogan added: “The business has got off to a really strong start and we are very quickly establishing a name for ourselves as an independent lender that is able to respond swiftly, working across all sectors and areas of the UK and Ireland.

“Increasingly, we are seeing finance brokers and debt advisory businesses coming to us to introduce deals on behalf of clients in non-standard lending situations, knowing that we are not constrained by the rigid mandates of an outside funder.”

Hogan said it was well on its way to reach its target of more than £100m in its inaugural year of trading and it was planning to grow the team so it could “continue to deploy our funds to meet the rapid timescale needed by many businesses”.

Max Lewis of Arrow Global noted: “Bergen Finance has gained real traction with borrowers. Bergen’s reliability and ability to finance more complex deals, is gaining increasing market traction, especially at a time where market conditions are volatile and other lenders are becoming increasingly unreliable.”