Paragon doubles commercial lending in 2018

Asset finance and development finance led growth within the division, while acquisitions of property finance company Titlestone and legal finance firm Iceberg have also delivered on growth potential.

Paragon Banking Group reported a 41% increase across all business lines to deliver £661 million of new lending in the first quarter of 2019. Commercial Lending reported the highest levels of growth across the Group with a 105% increase in lending to £212 million, compared to £103 million in the same quarter last year.

That was helped by a 56% increase in lending by asset finance to £93 million, including £19 million from Iceberg, which joined Paragon in December 2017. Like-for-like asset finance growth was 27%.

Development finance reported a 451% year-on-year increase in lending with £79 million of new business written in the quarter. That is in line with the £321 million of new advances achieved by the combined Paragon and Titlestone teams in the year to September 2018.

Elsewhere in the division, motor finance increased lending by 25% to £36 million and structured lending brought in over £3 million of business in the quarter.

Richard Doe, managing director for commercial lending at Paragon, said: “These results show further progress and strong growth for the commercial lending division and our recent acquisitions of Titlestone and Iceberg are only helping to grow our business to new levels across asset finance and development finance.

“As a specialist lender, Paragon is working hard to improve access to funding for British companies and SMEs and our increased levels of lending reflect this.”