British Business Bank agrees increase of £75m to ENABLE Guarantee with specialist commercial lender DF Capital

Press release 18 August 2023

The British Business Bank has agreed a portfolio increase of £75m to specialist commercial lender DF Capital’s existing ENABLE Guarantee.

This transaction builds on the £175m ENABLE Guarantee announced in January 2023, taking the total facility size to £250m.

DF Capital was the first lender to utilise the ENABLE Guarantee programme to support inventory finance. This specialist form of lending is critical to supply chains, supports the availability of working capital and improves cashflow across product distribution cycles and to date has supported over £275m of finance to dealer businesses.

DF Capital received its banking licence in September 2020. One of the objectives of the British Business Bank is to increase the diversity of supply and type of finance available to smaller businesses. In supporting new market entrants in this way, the Bank can help rapidly build the number of businesses supported and provide more choice across the market.

The Guarantee commitment may be further increased to £350m, which would support additional finance of around £450m annually.

We’re pleased to be able to increase the ENABLE Guarantee portfolio for DF Capital. This strengthens our commitment to inventory finance and to increasing the diversity of supply and type of finance available to smaller businesses. Michael Strevens Head of Structured Guarantees, British Business Bank
This additional support from the ENABLE Guarantee further strengthens our relationship with the British Business Bank, being a key foundation of our capital strategy, and supports our growth ambitions into 2024. Carl D’Ammassa Chief Executive, DF Capital

Notes to editors

About DF Capital

DF Capital is a trading name of DF Capital Bank Limited, a subsidiary of Distribution Finance Capital Holdings plc. It is a specialist commercial lending and personal savings bank, built to serve the needs of businesses and individuals in the UK.  It provides personal savings products to retail customers and award-winning inventory finance solutions to dealer and manufacturing businesses across the UK.

With its headquarters in Manchester, the bank now employs over 100 people.  It has provided over £2bn of funding across a variety of leisure and commercial sectors, including motorhome & caravan; lodges & holiday homes; specialist/prestige cars, motorcycles/all-terrain vehicles; marine; agriculture; industrial and transport.

The bank is a Living Wage Employer and, in November 2022, it also received a two star accreditation from “Best Companies to Work For” which is awarded for outstanding levels of engagement. In January 2022, the bank was awarded the Gold Trusted Service Award from feefo for its savings offering – with customer satisfaction currently standing at 4.7 out of 5 stars.

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank’s core programmes support over £12.2bn Read footnote text 1  of finance to more than 96,000 smaller businesses Read footnote text 2 .

As well as increasing the supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.

The British Business Bank is also responsible for administering the government’s three Coronavirus loan schemes and its Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4bn in finance to 1.67m businesses. These schemes are now closed to new applications.

British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. Wholly owned by HM government, the Bank and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at british-business-bank.co.uk.

The transaction described above does not constitute or imply any endorsement, warranty or recommendation by the UK Government, the British Business Bank plc or its subsidiaries or any other party of DF Capital or its products or services.