On 17th December 2020 The Chancellor of the Exchequer extended the government’s three Coronavirus business interruption loan schemes. The end date for these schemes is now 31 March 2021, ensuring that there is further support in place for those who may need it. The Future Fund deadline remains as 31 January 2021.
More businesses will now be able to benefit from the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) and the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS).
Please see details of these below:
CBILS
For CBILS repayment terms can be up to 10 years in length, companies can make interest only payments for 6 months, and businesses under severe pressure can suspend all repayments for 6 months, which will help firms that are severely struggling.
The other features of the CBILS scheme are as follows:
- Up to a £5m facility;
- Interest and fees paid by the Government for the first 12 months;
- The borrower remaining 100% liable for the debt;
- Lenders being able to set interest rates at their discretion;
- Lenders are prohibited from requesting personal guarantees on loans under £250k;
- For loans over £250k, personal guarantees may still be required, at a lender’s discretion, but recoveries under these are capped at a maximum of 20% of the outstanding balance of the CBILS facility after the proceeds of business assets have been applied;
- A Principal Private Residence (PPR) cannot be taken as security to support a personal guarantee or as security for a CBIL backed facility; and
- CBILS covers all small companies who are impacted by coronavirus, not just those for whom other forms of commercial funding was not available.
You are eligible for a CBILS loan if:
- your application is for business purposes;
- your business is UK based, with turnover of no more than £45m per year;
- your business generates more than 50% of its turnover from trading activity;
- your CBILS-backed facility will be used to support primarily trading in the UK;
- you wish to borrow up to a maximum of £5m; and
- you have a borrowing proposition which would have been viable pre-Coronavirus
CLBILS has the same features and eligibility criteria as the CBILS, other than the below:
- Funding of £50m to £200m can be provided;
- Repayment terms of 3 months to 3 years;
- To be eligible, you must meet the criteria for CBILS above, while also having annual turnover of more than £45m.
BBLS
The key features of bounce back loans are:
- Loans of between £2k up to 25% of a business’ turnover (maximum of £50k);
- Scheme is 100% government backed;
- Up to 6 years in length;
- Interest and capital repayment free for 12 months;
You are eligible for a bounce back loan if:
- You are based in the UK;
- Your business generates more than 50% of its turnover from trading activity;
- Your business is engaged in trading or commercial activity in the UK and was established by 1 March 2020;
- You have been negatively affected by Covid-19;
- You were not an undertaking in difficulty in 2019.
Future Fund
The key features of the future fund are:
- The Government can make unsecured bridge funding available alongside other third party matched investor(s);
- Loans of £125k to £5m will be available, subject to a cap of the loan being no more than 50% of the bridge funding being provided to the company;
- Total funding available for the scheme is £250m;
- The funding will solely be used for working capital purposes;
- The Government shall receive a minimum of 8% per annum (non-compounding) interest to be paid on maturity of the loan, with maximum loan periods of 3 years.
You are eligible for the future fund if your business:
- is unlisted;
- has raised £250k or more from third party investors over the last 5 years;
- has a substantive economic presence in the UK.
At these difficult times you may benefit from external support to manage the workload and to smooth the process with your funders including the following areas:
- Preparing a proposal / business plan for the funders;
- Preparing or reviewing an integrated financial forecast;
- Approaching and liaising with the funders; and
- Project managing the process at this challenging time for your business, enabling you to focus on your business.
RGCF has significant experience of the funding world and how to successfully raise funding, in good times and bad. If you would like to discuss this further, please contact:
Nick Johnson CF Partner
nickjohnson@ryecroftglenton.com
07494076953
Alex Simpson CF Senior Manager
alexsimpson@ryecroftglenton.com