Green light for traffic management company

Acklea is one of the UK’s leading traffic management equipment suppliers, producing the signs and vehicles that are used at road works or accidents on the UK’s motorway network. As specialists in traffic management vehicle production and hire, their products include the LED sign boards used in mobile lane closure vehicles as well as the vehicles used to direct traffic using cones. Acklea is based in Calne, Wiltshire and makes or modifies vehicles bespoke to customer requirements with the addition of lighting boards, signage and crash cushions.

Local collaboration

In a recent transaction, terms of which remain undisclosed, the Corporate Finance team at Shaw Gibbs have assisted local businessman Martin Potter to acquire a controlling stake in Acklea Limited. Funding for the deal was secured by Chris Morris of NGI Finance in conjunction with Close Asset Finance and legal advice to Mr Potter was provided by Nicola McConville at Blake Lapthorn in Oxford.

Management Buy-In

Martin Potter has a background of over 20 years in the specialist vehicle industry in the infrastructure maintenance arena. His historic senior responsibilities have been in strategic business development, vehicle procurement, remarketing, maintenance and service delivery. The previous owner wanted to take more of a back seat in the running of the business and believed that Martin was the person to take the business on to the next level of development even though he will remain involved to spearhead the Company’s research & development.

Specialist transaction

A significant amount of money needed to be raised from the existing assets of the business but high street lenders are cautious because effectively the organisation is a new start business once the new owner is in situ, added to which in this case the assets were very specialist. Despite making the right noises, the high street lenders eventually came up with nothing.

Asset lender

NGI Finance was able to find an asset lender who understands this type of business transaction intimately. NGI arranged for senior personnel from the lender to meet with Shaw Gibbs and Martin Potter to discuss the terms. After months of negotiation, the deal was completed in December 2011 and Martin took over Acklea.

We faced numerous challenges, not least the difficult environment for doing corporate deals. Had it not been for NGI Finance facilitating the funding, the deal might never have been brought to a successful close. Peter O’Connell, Shaw Gibbs

Pride and joy

Choosing a new car is an exciting time – from visiting showrooms, sitting in the vehicles to taking a test drive and when eventually you decide on the right model, colour and extras for you, the next step is to agree the finance deal. Very often it is the easiest thing to do to just sign on the dotted line and accept the deal that the garage offers you but as many NGI clients know, there are other offers out there that might suit you better if only you had time to look.

Sign here

When planning consultant Steven Sensecall reached the point in negotiations for buying a new Land Rover Discovery he was about to sign up for the dealer’s finance offer, after all it made things easy and straightforward. It also appeared to be very competitive, but there were a couple of things about the deal that he was not quite sure were right for him, so on recommendation, he asked NGI Finance for a quote as well.

Different dealer, different car

Paul Avins, a well- established business coach based in Oxfordshire, was also at the end of negotiations to purchase a £35,000 Audi and he too had been quoted by the dealer for their finance offering. Like Steve, Paul was referred to NGI Finance, again by another satisfied NGI client.

Right product, right price

In both cases, NGI Finance quickly identified that the product offered by the dealer was wrong for the client and the price was too expensive. Dealers usually only use one source for their finance, but as NGI uses a number of different finance houses, they have access to more options and can find the right one for the client’s requirements.

Time is of the essence

Neither Paul nor Steve had to wait any longer to take delivery of their cars using NGI than they would have done had they used the dealers finance. NGI got back to them both within a few hours with some options, talked them through and set up the deals within days ready for Steven and Paul to drive their respective cars off the garage forecourts on time.

I saved myself over £2,500 by just picking up the phone and speaking to NGI Finance and I still took delivery of my new car within 3 days.Paul Avins, Business Wealth Club

Not only is the finance deal that NGI came up with is £50 a month cheaper than the one the car dealer was offering, but the length of the term of the finance deal is better for me.Steven Sensecall, Kemp and Kemp

Due to the sensitive nature of the transaction, we are not able to name the property investment firm involved in this case study.

Alternative lenders

An experienced property investment firm had a sizeable portfolio of commercial and residential properties that they have built up over many years. They were used to borrowing money to purchase properties and had traditionally relied on high street banks for their mortgages.

Change in the market

The property investor wanted to raise some cash to buy more properties taking advantage of the discounted prices in the current market. Although they had an excellent track record with all of their current lenders, they had effectively run out of banks to borrow from, due in large to the current market conditions which have led to many main stream banks effectively withdrawing from property investment loans.

New lenders

NGI Finance was able to find new lenders not previously known to the client, even though they had been active in the property business for a significant period of time. There are a number of lenders that do not deal direct but only lend through brokers like NGI but who are able to offer very competitive terms to property investment firms.

With you every step of the way

Having dealt historically with bank officials who had a habit of taking a long time to make decisions and were renowned for their poor service in returning calls and keeping them informed, the property investor was refreshingly surprised with the service that they received from NGI Finance. Being a smaller organisation, NGI was on hand to help with every step, always available to answer questions and queries including arranging for the lending managers to meet with the investor in person.

NGI Finance found us new lenders that we wouldn’t have otherwise known about.Property investor