Amongst the most heavily impacted industries, by the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, was the hospitality sector. Drenagh Country Estate in Northern Ireland, a specialist wedding and conference venue, faced a year with little income due to the reduced size, postponement and cancellation of many events.  Like many businesses, this left it with overheads mounting but no income. Fiduciam granted it a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) facility to substantially lower its financing costs during that difficult period.  Fiduciam has handled over £700 million in CBILS loan requests during the pandemic and made a significant and lasting difference to many UK businesses, ranging from pubs to children nurseries, and from house-builders to manufacturers.

In early 2019 Fiduciam funded a Luxembourg-owned vineyard in France.  The vineyard produces a biodynamic wine, with solid distribution, including through Waitrose in the UK.  The three-year loan was structured as a multi-drawdown facility of €3m with an initial drawdown of €750,000.  Fiduciam took a charge over the vineyard, but in addition it also took security over 77,422 bottles of wine and 2,631 hectolitres of wine in barrels.  The loan was taken out by a Luxembourg company, principally owned by a high net worth individual from the United States who had purchased the vineyard several years ago and now needed to refinance some existing debt of the vineyard.  Due to the nature of the borrower’s company and the multi-national shareholders involved, the loan involved five jurisdictions: Fiduciam based in the UK, the vineyard in France, the borrower/guarantor in the US, the borrower’s company in Luxembourg and a pledgor from Australia.

Fiduciam provided a bridging loan to a successful British entrepreneur who has been developing luxury property in Mallorca for over two decades.  The bridging loan allowed him to extract equity out of a newly completed project whilst marketing the property to potential purchasers.  The loan proceeds allow the British developer to finance three ongoing projects in Mallorca: the construction of a hotel and seven adjoining luxury villas, the construction of several rural cottages and the development of a further four detached houses.  Although the developer has access to development finance from Spanish banks, they were unable to offer as favourable terms and as quickly as Fiduciam.

In June 2018, Fiduciam granted a €1.3 million, three-year commercial loan to Hatton Farm in the Republic of Ireland.  Hatton Farm, which operates under Hatton Produce Ltd, is one of Ireland’s leading potato producers and is renowned for the high quality of its potatoes.  Like many other Irish farms, Hatton Farm was really let down badly by the traditional banks in the aftermath of the financial crisis.  Marina Hatton commented: “Fiduciam believed in us when the big banks were simply not there anymore. This farm has been in our family for three generations and it’s thanks to the loan that we got from Fiduciam that we can grow our business and secure our children’s future.”  As a thank you for the loan, Hatton Farm offered Fiduciam one of its home-grown Christmas trees for their office. As a bit of fun, Fiduciam sent two of its BDMs to chop down the tree and carry it home, and filmed the whole lot. Please check it out here

Following the take-over and recapitalization of TVR by a group of successful British entrepreneurs, the development of a new high-performance car was commenced in close cooperation with Gordon Murray Design. Fiduciam provided the cornerstone of the second capitalization round, closely working together with the Welsh government and equity investors, in order to finance a new production facility in South Wales, a project representing £30 million of capital expenditure and creating 150 direct jobs and many more in the supply chain. This transaction demonstrates Fiduciam’s ability to successfully complete ambitious transactions.

Unlike large homebuilders, smaller development and construction firms often find it challenging to obtain finance. Fiduciam funds many of these smaller firms, particularly those focused on the development of traditional housing stock for middle-class incomes.  One of those firms, run by a husband and wife team, with East London as their focus area, has developed a strong track record and relationship with Fiduciam.  Their testimonial:  “We got to know Fiduciam when our bank was dragging its feet over a new acquisition, for no apparent reason, and we decided we needed to diversify funding sources.  Since then we have been doing all our projects with Fiduciam as they have proven to be efficient and to understand the construction trade; also allowing us to extract equity without any red tape when we need it to roll over into the next project.”

Bladon Jets is a Coventry-based company pioneering and shortly to manufacture world-leading micro turbines – small, light and clean-burning engines. Though originally intended to develop these as range extenders for future electric Jaguar and Land Rover cars, they have been adapted to replace diesel engines in powering the telecom mast towers, as primary or secondary charger units. A City financier and venture capitalist decided to invest in Bladon Jets and instead of disposing of other assets, he chose to obtain a Business Bridge Loan secured on exclusive Sussex seafront property. This approach leaves the investor the flexibility to finance his new capital injection into Bladon Jets either through future business income and capital returns, or by rearranging his portfolio investments. Read about it: The Telegraph

An important and family-owned landlord, focused on affordable property for key-workers in London, uses Fiduciam to finance new property acquisitions and portfolio reallocations.  As with other property investors he uses a mix of traditional commercial bank loans and buy-to-let loans, complimented by Fiduciam’s Standard Rental Loans.  When acquiring new property, the high-street banks usually cannot meet time deadlines or simply wish to hold off until a rental track record has been established.  Fiduciam is a constant provider of funding on new acquisitions for this successful landlord as he continues to build out his portfolio.