Nottingham Accountants Smith Emmerson Unravel The Mysteries Of The Governments New Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme (EFGS)

The £1.3 Billion Government Initiative Replacing The Small Loan Guarantee Scheme...
Nottingham based Chartered Accountants Smith Emmerson have given Lord Mandelson a much needed boost today. By unveiling their plans to help small businesses take advantage of this much derided initiative.
Jason Sharp, Partner at Smith Emmerson explains...
“Our Practice has a huge focus on small and medium sized companies and we have been approached by a number of clients eager to investigate The Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme (EFGS).
The lack of clarity and transparency of the scheme’s conditions and requirements are stopping most companies dead in their tracks. And to be honest when I first started to delve further I could understand why.
However I’ve now had very productive meetings with the major lenders (the major Banks) and have a full understanding of the issues and constraints surrounding the scheme. And I think it’s fair to say that a number of the lender’s were none too sure of how to proceed on the governments behalf themselves.
The important thing to remember here is that it’s the bank’s decision at the end of the day and not the governments. This means it’s vitally important that when applying for a loan you and your advisors work in close tandem with your chosen lender.”
Covering 75% of the risk, the government have made this available for qualifying companies and organisations with a turnover up to £25million. Loans vary from £1000 to £1 million at the top end and can be used for many varying purposes.
“This is the great thing about EFGS. If it works and I now firmly believe it will. The door will be opened for many company’s struggling to arrange funds by traditional means. We have client’s who are looking to consolidate their existing high interest overdrafts into a loan and free up much needed working capital through the loan and EFGS allows all or part of the loan for this very purpose.
We also have clients who lack the collateral to cover the loans and again EFGs is the perfect vehicle. We whole heartedly support Lord Mandelson and would encourage other professional advisors to invest time and resource into this wrongly maligned and in fact very positive initiative.”
One note of caution comes from Jason “The window for applications is relatively small as the scheme closes in March 2010. My advice is to find an Advisor who both fully understands the scheme and works closely with the lenders. If you do this and meet the schemes tough but fair criteria you will have a very good chance of securing funding.”
Smith Emmerson have set up a National EFGs Help Line on 0845 074 3758 or you can access them via www.EFGSLoans.co.uk or mail Jason Sharp directly at jason@smithemmerson.co.uk

Contact Information

Jason Sharp

Senior Partner

Smith Emmerson

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