UK

More businesses are borrowing using asset-based lending (ABL), according to new statistics from Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance.

Ultimate Finance Group PLC, which provides cash flow funding for small to medium-sized businesses, said it will raise around Ј495,000 through a placing of 3,473,646 new shares at 15 pence each.

The payment performance of over 2,700 plcs, including some of the UK's largest household names, has been published by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

UK Corporate profitability during 2003 has returned to levels last seen at the tail end of the dotcom boom in 2000 according to the latest figures published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and analysed by Grant Thornton's Recovery and R

DCD Factors plc, the London-based factor and invoice discounter, has released results for the twelve months to 31 December 2003 showing a pre-tax profit of Ј122,110, a 13.97% reduction compared to the 2002 figure of Ј141,942.

Venture Finance PLC, the asset-based financier, today extends its support for small- and medium-sized companies (SMEs) in the North East with the launch of a new office in Newcastle.

Scotland's new Debt Arrangement Schemes will protect creditors from judgment enforcement except in special circumstances.

Mayflower Corporation failed for four years to make full payments to HSBC, which was operating an invoice-discounting scheme on its behalf.

SME Invoice Finance Limited has announced results for the financial year to December 2003 following their annual audit undertaken by BDO Stoy Hayward.

The Bank of England has held interest rates steady at 4.0 per cent for the second month running, after a two-day meeting which had put markets on a knife-edge over whether rates would go up or not.