Mercia opens NPIF & CBILS applications to SMEs in the Northern Powerhouse region.

28th July 2020

Finance provider Mercia is now offering NPIF loans of £100,000 to £750,000 backed by the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS).

Mercia opened applications this week after being accredited as a CBILS lender by the British Business Bank recently and will deliver the loans through the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund (NPIF). Mercia now manages more than £140milion on behalf of NPIF deploying both debt and equity across the region with a particular focus on Yorkshire and the Humber.

Paul Taberner, Managing Director of Mercia’s Debt Funds, said:

“Given the rise in the number of businesses in the region, there is already significant demand for finance to support growing firms, and a pandemic such as COVID-19 has only heightened this need. With traditional banking solutions becoming increasingly hard to secure, we are delighted to be working with our partners at both the British Business Bank and the Northern Powerhouse Investment FundF to deliver the CBILS scheme. We want to encourage businesses to come forward and find out how they can access additional capital to support them through the pandemic and recovery plans as the economy unwinds from lockdown and prepares for 2021.”

Mercia’s NPIF CBILS loans are aimed at companies or LLPs with fewer than 250 staff and whose business has been adversely affected by Coronavirus.

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund project is supported financially by the European Union using funding from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020 and the European Investment Bank.

CBILS, delivered through British Business Bank accredited lenders, is designed to support the continued provision of finance to UK smaller businesses (SMEs) during the Covid-19 outbreak. The scheme enables lenders to provide facilities of up to £5m to smaller businesses across the UK who are experiencing lost or deferred revenues, leading to disruptions to their cashflow.