Pictured above: Paul Ray, Head of Banking at Browne Jacobson.

Browne Jacobson completes 6 ABL-backed deals in 6 weeks. Banking lawyers at Browne Jacobson have seen a resurgence in asset based lending (ABL) following a recent wave of transactions and refinancing deals totalling more than £50m. 

In the last two months ABL has been central to six of the 12-plus deals the firm's banking team have completed. 

The latest of these deals involved advising Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets and Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance on a three year £35m funding facility for DBC Foodservice Group which included £20m of invoice discounting.

Browne Jacobson has advised Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance on a number of transactions involving the food company over the years. In 2006 it acted on the acquisition of DBC by Woodward Foodservice and again earlier this year when DBC was acquired by WPD Limited, a company owned by the management team behind high street brand Iceland Frozen Foods.

Other recent ABL backed deals over the past six weeks have included advising management on its acquisition of garage door manufacturer Cardale, acting for KeTech on its £4.5m refinancing package which included £2.5m of invoice discounting from Centric Commercial Finance Limited, the acquisition of DRV by Multimedia Group Limited and two Bibby Financial Services' backed deals involving invoice discounting.

Paul Ray, Head of Banking at Browne Jacobson, said: "The uptake of asset based lending we all expected at the end of last year and into quarter one of 2009 never really materialised but it's a different story now. In the third quarter the interest has been marked and the highest for some time.

"Stock, plant, machinery and property finance are increasingly featuring alongside invoice finance. 

"Companies realise that they can leverage their assets to maximise funding and ABL also suits funders as it is an efficient use of their capital."

The news comes after the Bank of England announced net business lending had fallen by a record £8.4 billion in July, the single biggest monthly fall since records began in 1997.

Paul Ray added : "As traditional lenders remain cautious many businesses are appreciating the advantages that ABL has to offer and as it is in the main provided against revolving assets, this allows funding to grow in line with the growth of the business.

"Also businesses often find that monitoring through financial covenants is certainly less onerous with ABL as compared to term loan and overdraft lending."