Norman Broadbent secures additional liquidity with CBILS loan

Professional services company Norman Broadbent announced on Thursday that, in order to strengthen its balance sheet and aid liquidity, it had secured a £0.25m six-year term loan facility under the British Business Bank's Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans Scheme (CBILS) from its bankers, Metro Bank.

The AIM-traded firm said the facility could be drawn down at any point before 16 January, with a 12-month interest-free period following drawdown, and an interest rate of 4.75% over Metro Bank’s base rate per annum on the drawn down amount thereafter.

It said the funds would be repayable from 12 months after drawdown in equal monthly instalments for the remaining five years.

There would be no penalty for making early repayment of all or part of the facility, the board said.

Additionally, the company said it had agreed a new invoice financing facility with Metro Bank, and a further £1.5m was now available under the facility in addition to the CBILS loan.

As at 31 October, the firm said it had drawn down about £0.33m on its existing invoice financing debt facility, which would be replaced by the Metro Bank facility in February.

“We are pleased with these new funding arrangements which are testament to much hard work by our team over recent years,” said chief executive officer Mike Brennan.

“The new invoice discounting facility will greatly improve liquidity and help fuel further growth.”

Brennan said that in addition, with around one in 10 applicants in Norman Broadbent’s sector being approved for CBILS, its securing of the loan “says much” about the increasing strength of its business.

“These new funding arrangements are particularly important as we seek growth opportunities by way of merger and acquisition activity, strategic 'tuck-ins' with smaller businesses or teams, and organic growth.”

At 1048 GMT, shares in Norman Broadbent were up 22.5% at 4.9p.