The Scottish Loan Fund is announced and live, coming under the Scottish Investment Bank a subsidiary business of Scottish Enterprise. The SLF comes along to plug a gap that quickly emerged as banks went into a phase of re-building balance sheets following the near collapse of their sector. There’s been a bit of huffing and puffing that the SLF has been too slow to get launched – but lets be realistic these things don’t/can’t happen quickly.
With more than one bank already being owned by the UK government it might be prudent to ask why we need to create another bank also owned by the state. But the need is clear given the reluctance of banks to lend to anything other than the most copper bottomed of businesses. The SLF isn’t for everyone the full details (or as full as I can find) are at http://www.mavencp.com/scottish-loan-fund - Maven are the chaps managing the £55mn pot. The SLF appears to be aimed at businesses with scalable business models looking at export markets – and with current turnover of £1mn+. The terms are not stated – but reading between the lines it won’t be the cheapest money, but when money is in short supply we shouldn’t be surprised by that.
I like the sound of the SIB and the SLF. Hope it does the trick.
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