Fifth Successive Year Of Growth Shows Solid Performance, Says Reward MD Tom Flannery

A healthy rise of 14% for year-end income at Reward Finance Group has provided evidence of solid growth for five successive years, says joint MD Tom Flannery.

Mr Flannery helped oversee increased income for year-end February 2017 to £7.56million, which is 14% up on the previous year. The figures reveal continuing and unbroken track record of yearly growth since the inception of the alternative finance provider five years ago.

Reward, with bases in Leeds and Manchester, made total advances of £84million during the year with the year-end loan book increasing 25% to £40million across 130 live clients.

And Mr Flannery said: “It has been another solid year of growth for us as demand increases for the funding services we offer. Banks continue to take an age to complete transactions and now have little interest in providing short term funding to SMEs, as evidenced by both the Bank of England and British Banking Association statistics confirming a £9billion reduction over recent years in this area of funding.

"During the year we further strengthened our team with the appointment of Nick Smith, one of the most experienced and well-connected asset-based lenders in the North of England, and we are delighted that he has recently become a shareholder in Reward. We are in the process of recruiting further staff in order to support our growing book which has seen a 30% increase in deal numbers over the last three months.”

Reward is 70% owned by Dr Christo Wiese’s Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed Tradehold Group with Reward’s Mr Flannery, Dave Jones and Nick Smith owning the remainder (management). Tradehold provides Reward with the cash that enables it to advance funding to SMEs within very short timescales and saw its own assets increase to £998million in the year.