Glasgow-based Startline Motor Finance has received a £325m credit facility from investment bank J.P.Morgan.
The arrangement is the second of its kind for the two companies, following a £250m facility issued to Startline in December 2017.
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Paul Burgess, chief executive of Startline, said: “The lending philosophy that we have pioneered in the motor finance sector is increasingly coming into its own, thanks both to greater understanding of our proposition from introducers such as dealers and to current market conditions.
“Across our product range, we have seen higher levels of penetration but the PCP offering that we introduced last year has been especially effective. It effectively has its own market niche that is very relevant to the used car market today.”
The company has enjoyed a strong start to the year, with business volumes up more than 20% year-on-year. The number of staff has doubled since 2018 to around 80 people, while 50 more will be recruited in order to bring its customer services function in-house.
“The last 12 months have been transformative for us as a business,” Burgess continued. “Our lending takes place mainly through introducers such as franchised dealer groups, car supermarkets and online platforms – and we are now working with larger numbers of all of these as well as seeing higher penetration at existing customers.
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By GlobalData“Looking further into 2019, we envisage the current level of growth continuing and also hope to be able to announce a number of interesting product and service developments. We believe that, with a shifting social and economic landscape signifying changes in home ownership and employment patterns, that a move towards products like ours makes absolute sense.
“Of course, we have some hard lending rules but in areas where other lenders take a black-and-white approach, we will take a look at each individual in more detail and, as a result, are able to offer APRs and terms that are comparable with traditional prime lenders,” he concluded.
