Nathan Mollett, the Leasing Foundation‘s new chair, has set out the Foundation’s vision, including the addition of two extra channels to the group’s activities as well as a commitment to better regional balance for its initiatives across the UK.

The existing channels of Innovation, NextGen and Diversity & Inclusion will continue to be aligned with the Foundation’s mission but “there are several additional focus areas which were identified at an industry engagement drinks event held two months ago,” the Foundation said in a press release.

The two new channels are: Sustainability – one of the most consistent items of feedback was that the Leasing Foundation should help shape the conversation on sustainability. Giving – this is an area where the industry can join together to support worthy causes, the organisers said.

The Foundation will be adding new faces to the board to support these new channels and will announce these appointments shortly. In addition to the new sustainability and giving programmes, Mollett will also broaden the scope and reach of the Foundation both geographically and into other areas of finance. Most of its events are currently London-based but there is a large business finance community in the north who repeatedly say that they’d like to see more regional events.

UK-based M&G has announced the acquisition of a 41% stake in Finance Ireland, an alternative finance provider, for €50m.

Finance Ireland, a top-tier non-bank lender in Ireland, offers a range of financial solutions including car finance, leasing, SME financing and agriculture loans.

The Irish firm will use the proceeds for growing and expanding future lending, which surpassed the €1bn figure for the first time in 2021.

Chief executive Billy Kane founded the lender in 2002 and it currently employs 170 people.

In 2018, Finance Ireland forayed into the residential mortgage space, with M&G having bought around €1bn of these mortgages in the past three years.

Last year, long-dated fixed-rate mortgages with terms of up to 25 years were launched with backing from an existing funding agreement with M&G Investments.

M&G private & alternative assets division chief investment officer Will Nicoll said: “Finance Ireland is the largest non-bank lender within the Irish market and is well-positioned to take advantage of favourable structural changes as some banks withdraw for core areas of lending.

“In addition to the growth potential of the business, the investment provides us with long-term funding opportunities as we continue to partner with the team to bring innovative financing solutions to Irish businesses and consumers.”

Close Brothers Leasing, part of merchant banking group Close Brothers, has announced it is to provide a development loan for a 99.98MW battery energy storage system (BESS) belonging to Pacific Green Technologies, located at Richborough Energy Park in Kent.

The funding will cover the BESS construction phase, Close Brothers said in a press release.

On June 28, law firm Gowling WLG announced that its energy team had advised Pacific Green over a senior debt facility agreement with Close Leasing.

Earlier in June, Pacific Green said it had reached a financial close for £28.25 million of senior debt for the 99.98MW BESS. It said the senior debt, in conjunction with the equity investment by Green Power Reserves Limited, will provide the Company with the funding to bring the battery park to commercial operations in June 2023.

Pacific Green said the senior debt facility agreement with Close Leasing will be used in stages following the expenditure of the equity investment. Gowling WLG added that the loan would be refinanced into a 10-year amortised term loan upon the start of commercial operations.

According to its website, Pacific Green Technologies Group is a provider of sustainable cleantech solutions with a view to helping address climate warming, green energy and resource scarcity challenges.

Total asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew in May 2022 by 5% compared with the same month in 2021, according to new figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA). In the five months to May 2022, new business was 2% higher than in the same period in 2021.

German financing firm Grenke, which caters to SMEs across Europe, has generated new leasing business worth €587.4m in the second quarter of 2022. The figure represents a surge of 47.4% year-on-year (YOY). In Q1 2022, the financing firm registered a growth of 36.5%, and in Q4 2021 it was 22.1%

The agricultural division of Haydock Finance has launched a product for the UK dairy sector. Dairy Cattle Finance “includes refinancing and has been designed to support British farmers with their cattle purchasing and cash flow requirements,” the provider said during an Agri Finance webinar unveiling to its broker partners.