"CBILS has provided a lifeline for many businesses across the UK."

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The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) is provided through the British Business Bank and a group of accredited providers. Since it launched in March 2020, its primary focus has been to provide financial support to SMEs who have experienced lost revenue and cash flow disruptions as a result of coronavirus. However the scheme can be used to fund growth projects that have been delayed by the pandemic.

CBILS has provided a lifeline for many businesses across the UK. Without it, and the other measures introduced by the government, corporate failures would have been significantly higher. As the pandemic elongated into 2021, the Chancellor re- extended the CBILS deadline to 31 March 2021. So there remains a window of opportunity for business owners to sit back and consider if they have sufficient resources on their balance sheet to weather two to three years of turbulent recovery.

Leveraging CBILS

If you decide that having a bit more cash would be a wise defensive tactic – let’s be honest it’s not a bad idea as a business never failed because it had too much cash – then how do you go about it through CBILS?

We launched our CBILS Support Service in March 2020 and since then have advised over 600 clients and been engaged to deliver over £40m of funding. Our support service is available if your business has been hit by lack of resource in your finance department, you are not confident in making an approach to your lender, you want to use the facility to support a growth project, or your own application has been rejected and you wish to appeal or approach other lenders.

"We predict the next two or three years will be turbulent."

Our CBILS experts can advise you on the revenue deferrals and cost mitigations that lenders consider reasonable and acceptable when presenting your projected cashflows as part of a robust financial model. We can also help you set out a business plan that demonstrates affordability to the lender and gives you peace of mind.

Negotiating on your behalf

For loans over £250k, we can help negotiate the structure of security with your lender and its interaction with existing facility providers. This will make sure that your exposure is minimised as far as possible particularly in relation to Personal Guarantees.

At Shaw & Co, we predict the next two or three years will be turbulent. Without getting overly technical, our advice to clients at this juncture is to consider if you are appropriately prepared for the tough years ahead. If not, you may regret not seizing the CBILS opportunity whilst it exists.

We work with growing UK SMEs and small-cap PLCs that have funding needs in excess of £2m and regularly approaching £100m. Our clients’ needs will typically be for sophisticated finance products such as cash flow based lending or private equity investments. Our value lies in helping clients access funding that relies on confidence in future trading and cash flows. For a confidential, independent, no obligation discussion on the funding options available click the 'Let's chat' button.