UKEF Case Study: Green’s Power

Government department UK Export Finance (UKEF) expanded eligibility for government backed loan and bond support to include the UK supply chain for the first-time last year – support previously only open to UK exporters.

Wakefield-based Green’s Power was the first company to benefit from this new finance offer.

Based in Yorkshire, Green’s Power is a specialist manufacturer of economisers, boilers and pressure parts, designed to reduce emissions by capturing and reusing waste heat for everything from cruise ships and power stations, to paper mills and food factories.

While 60% of its sales are exports, Green’s Power also supplies other UK businesses that then go on to export themselves. For example, in 2015, Green’s Power won a supply contract with a UK energy company, which then exported the supplied component as part of a wider package to Africa.

In order to secure these contracts, Green’s was required to provide a performance guarantee for the benefit of its buyer. However, banks typically require companies to provide cash security prior to issuing a bond, which can restrict the cash a company has available to fund its orders or take on new ones.

Thanks to the extension of the UK Government’s trade finance offer to include the UK supply chain, UKEF, the UK’s export credit agency, was able to provide a guarantee for 80% of the bond’s value to Green’s Power’s bank, HSBC.

This allowed HSBC to provide the bond without additional security from Green’s, allowing the company to retain valuable working capital to help deliver the contract, and enhance its capacity to finance other orders from the UK and overseas.

Matthew Crewe, managing director of Green’s Power, commented: “UKEF has played a significant role in our international growth by giving us the financial resource to seize overseas opportunities.

“Now this new avenue for support means we have greater capacity to grow our business in the UK too, while supporting UK exports – this is really great news for the UK supply chain.”