EFG - Enterprise Finance Guarantee

Posted on March 5, 2009 by Julian Dobbin

The government have now beefed up the Small Firms Loan Guarantee scheme. The EFG was set up to inject much needed liquidity into the SME sector, targeting viable / profitable businesses who have cash flow problems or are unable to fund growth. These problems have arisen from the scarcity of credit in the economy (triggered by changing attitudes to risk and availability of capital). The basic premise of the scheme is that the Government will guarantee lending to viable businesses (limited to 75% of the loan value – though under EU competition law it should only be 10%...that is another story!).

This scheme will support bank lending, of 3 months to 10 year maturity, to UK businesses with a turnover of up to £25 million who are not able to access the finance they need. It will provide loans of between £1,000 and £1 million and is currently available until March 2010.

The guarantee can support new loans, refinance existing debt, or conversions of existing overdrafts into loans to release capacity to meet working capital requirements.

It is a very flexible tool in comparison to the previous scheme – the parameters in size have been widened significantly, and an interesting new feature is the flexibility to use the EFG in 'share' transactions.

Only time will tell whether the EFG will be a success. The decisions to lend are delegated to the banks, who will apply their own criteria. However it appears to be a step in the right direction, and I for one hope that the EFG scheme will provide a lifeline for the many viable, but cashflow pressurised, SME’s in the UK.

See guidance from Business Link by clicking here.

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