Close Brothers Commercial Finance

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MrEarl

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Hello,

Does anyone have any direct experience of dealing with Close Brothers, here in Ireland ?

A friend has been in recent discussions about arranging some finance for his business and asked me about them. While I have heard of them a few times, I have no direct experience and don't know anyone who has. They are in Ireland several years now, but I think they have remained a relatively small operation (being a subsidary or branch of the UK quoted company).

In particular I am wondering what their service and pricing is like.

Thank you.
 
I have a friend in the motor business and he uses them to finance car sales.Prompt and efficient co to deal with.
 
Seems quite a few companies use them. I've paid insurance for car, house etc through them. So they seem to handle a lot of different businesses.
 
Mr Earl,

Close bros are a large and well funded operation.
They came to Ire in downturn and specialised in funding cashflows .
eg if a haulier had 8 lorries paid for they would refinance them to give haulier cash-flow . This would have happened when hauliers Bank reduced overdraft,particularly in downturn..
They helped quite a few businesses who were messed by our (banks).
They would have been more expensive , but in the scheme of things not a lot.

Given that (our) Banks are lending again , Close may be still a bit more expensive on pricing , but it is always good to have more than one option.
They do require full financials etc.
 
Hello Mr. Canning,

Thank you for your comments.

Do you have any idea of how much more expensive than the "main" banks they might be, in terms of something like a commercial loan for a property for example (assuming the borrower would qualify for a loan from either lender etc) ? Are we talking a quarter percent, a full one percent or more perhaps ?

One thing I do like the sound of, is the idea of having direct contact (face to face / telephone and email) with a specific person who doeals with your account. As I see it, BoI are in the process of moving a lot of their small to mid sized commercial customers to telephone and internet banking, which is not a good idea for business customers (although I'm sure its a good idea for BoI, in terms of initial cost savings), in my own view.

I could not agree with you more, regarding the point about having more than one option by the way. Eggs and one basket come to mind, as I type this ;)
 
Before our other Banks started re-lending ,when Close was nearly only lender they took circa a 2% premium.
Am told they are now matching our (friendly) Banks.
If they have good security eg worth twice the borrowings they are competitive .

But say k200 over 84 months @4% = 2734 each month
k200 over 84 months '4.5%= 2780 each month.
Point is. don,t let .5% swing you too much.Keep an eye out for set up and annual fees.

BOI and the rest will all move from face -to-face soon nuff, so get used to it, methinks !
 
Gerry Canning said:
....BOI and the rest will all move from face -to-face soon nuff, so get used to it, methinks !
Click to expand...

While we agree that BoI (and perhaps others) will try to move from face to face, we don't agree that we need to get used to it Mr. Canning.

In short, I believe in paying a small premium for good, face to face service. Relationship Management and having direct access to people who know your files, background and most important of all, understand the business you need to conduct with them - and not just a nice way to say "the computer says no", is vital for business owners.

From what you have said to date, I am going to make a point of attending the next meeting with my friend and Close Brothers... perhaps others also, if they exist in the same market place.

It seems like almost a thousand years, since banks like ICC existed :( If only FG (and other political parties) has the vision to bring them back, we'd all be better off in my personal view.
 
Most of the Finance arms of Banks have Reps that work Face -to-Face on equipment type financing.
I agree, we had ICC and ACC but they weren,t making nuff so were sold.
Now ACC has cost Rabobank a fortune , go figure ??

Maybe our Banks will re-learn a customer focus?
 
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