Invoice Discounting UK

It is fairly commonplace for the larger bank owned factoring companies to issue press releases publicizing any interesting deals and the latest is about a seafood company that has just agreed a £13m invoice discounting facility with it’s bankers.

It seems that this company is part of a substantial group with 1,300 employees and  a €525m turnover and it has just agreed this facility as part of it’s working capital requirements.

Reading too many of these press releases might give one the impression that invoice discounting is only available for substantial companies but that is not the case and facilities are available for companies turning over just £250,000 as long as they can show that they have a good paper trail

The invoice discounting market is primarily fuelled by the banks unwillingness to lend on overdraft but whilst the invoice discounting companies themselves (including the bank subsidiaries) are all actively looking for new clients the market overall is flat with all of the discounters struggling to make progress.

Everyone seems to have their own theories but my guess is that companies aren’t willing to make any financial commitments at the moment and would prefer to struggle along as they are.

Ian