Asset-based & asset-finance lenders
Asset-based lenders (ABL) advance against what a business owns and is owed — receivables, inventory, plant and machinery, sometimes property — rather than purely against cashflow. For asset-rich companies, an ABL structure can release materially more headroom than a cashflow facility, and it travels well through a working-capital cycle or an acquisition.
Maintained by Solon Corporate Finance · Last reviewed 27 September 2026
When a borrower should look here
A borrower should look to ABL when it is balance-sheet-heavy — a manufacturer, distributor or wholesaler with substantial receivables, inventory or plant — and a cashflow lender's leverage runs out before the funding need does. It suits funding a working-capital cycle, scaling alongside the asset base, or supporting an acquisition where the assets, not the earnings multiple, carry the structure. It is less suited to asset-light businesses, and it is more administratively involved than a cashflow facility: advance rates, periodic audits and ongoing reporting are part of the deal, so the operational cost should be weighed before committing.
How they differ from one another
Forty lenders across three desks that are often confused with one another. Asset-based lenders write multi-asset facilities across receivables, inventory, plant and property: at the structured end sit Leumi, PNC Business Credit, Wells Fargo and Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance, with independents like Independent Growth Finance and Aurelius able to blend a borrowing base with cashflow debt in one instrument. Invoice financiers keep to receivables discipline, from Bibby and Novuna at scale to sector specialists such as Sonovate in staffing and Skipton in construction. Asset finance houses fund the equipment itself, whether captive lenders like Caterpillar, bank-owned lessors like Lombard and BNP Paribas, or independents such as Haydock and Simply. Which desk fits turns on the asset mix, not on the label: most lower-mid-market structures use more than one.
The asset-based & asset-finance lenders
Asset-based lending16
Multi-asset facilities against receivables, inventory, plant and property.
4Syte
An independent asset-based lender writing facilities to £4m against receivables, inventory and plant, with a separate invoice finance line and a construction specialism.
ABN AMRO Commercial Finance
Dutch bank-owned receivables and asset-based lender that served the UK mid-market for over two decades but announced an orderly wind-down of its UK operations in November 2024, targeting completion by end of 2026.
Aurelius Finance Company
An independent asset-based lender owned by the AURELIUS group, writing hybrid facilities of £5m to £40m that combine a borrowing base with senior cashflow debt for event-driven deals.
BNP Paribas Commercial Finance
The UK arm of Europe's largest receivables and asset-based lending platform, writing facilities from £500k to £50m against debtors, inventory, plant and property, with cross-border reach.
Breal Zeta Commercial Finance
A special-situations asset-based lender affiliated to a global credit fund, underwriting turnaround, pre-pack and carve-out facilities that most lenders will not price.
FGI Finance
A New York-headquartered asset-based lender now owned by Goldman Sachs Alternatives, writing cross-border facilities of roughly £3m to £30m from a London office.
Independent Growth Finance
An independent multi-asset lender writing facilities of £2m to £25m against receivables, inventory, plant and property, with in-house credit and no bank chain behind the decision.
Leumi ABL
The Brighton-based asset-based lending division of Leumi UK Group, part of Israel's Bank Leumi, providing structured ABL facilities to UK and European corporates.
PNC Business Credit
The UK arm of PNC Bank's specialist ABL division, providing senior secured and cash flow facilities to asset-heavy and PE-sponsored businesses from a floor of approximately £5–10 million.
Praetura Commercial Finance
Manchester-based specialist ABL lender offering invoice discounting, stock revolvers, and multi-asset facilities to UK SMEs, from sub-£1m working capital lines to £35m-plus MBO packages.
Reward Finance Group
Leeds-headquartered specialist lender providing asset-secured working capital and property finance to UK SMEs, from £100k to £5m.
Secure Trust Bank Commercial Finance
The asset-based lending arm of Secure Trust Bank PLC, a PRA-authorised UK bank, providing multi-asset ABL and invoice finance to mid-market companies and private-equity-backed situations.
Ultimate Finance
A Bristol-based independent lending structured facilities of up to £10m against debtors, plant and property, with a decision in principle inside 48 hours where it can.
Upstream ABL
A Belfast-headquartered asset-based lender covering Northern Ireland, the Republic and Great Britain, funded by a £150m Pollen Street line, lending against assets rather than earnings.
Wells Fargo Capital Finance
The London asset-based lending desk of Wells Fargo, writing borrowing-base facilities from around £10m for UK and cross-border corporates, and expanding across Europe.
White Oak UK
The UK arm of a US specialty finance group, combining asset-based lending with senior secured direct lending in facilities from around £5m to £50m.
Invoice finance11
Receivables-led working capital, from factoring to confidential discounting.
Accelerated Payments
A selective invoice finance provider funding single invoices from £250k to £10m within 24 hours, underwritten on the debtor's insurability rather than on the borrower's balance sheet.
Bibby Financial Services
The UK's largest independent invoice finance and ABL provider, serving SMEs and lower mid-market businesses across receivables, assets, and working capital.
eCapital Commercial Finance
The UK arm of North American lender eCapital, providing factoring, confidential discounting and recruitment finance from £50k to around £4m through six regional offices.
Kriya
A digital invoice finance and business-to-business payments lender, acquired by Allica Bank in 2025, advancing up to 90 per cent of invoice value within a day on facilities to £5m.
Novuna Business Cash Flow
The invoice finance arm of Novuna, part of Mitsubishi HC Capital, funding discounting and factoring facilities to around £5m from a bank parent's balance sheet, with larger structured lines available.
Nucleus Commercial Finance
A London lender combining invoice finance and asset-based lending from £100k to £50m, advancing around 80 per cent against receivables, with a growing private-equity channel.
Optimum Finance
A Bristol invoice finance specialist, now part of eCapital, funding facilities to around £6m with advances of up to 90 per cent released within a day.
Pulse Finance (formerly Pulse Cashflow Finance)
Independent Basingstoke-based invoice finance and trade finance specialist, management-owned since an April 2025 Arena Investors-backed MBO, serving UK SMEs up to a £5m facility cap.
Skipton Business Finance
The commercial finance arm of Skipton Building Society, funding invoice finance from £25k and asset-based facilities to £25m from a mutual's deposit-funded balance sheet.
Sonovate
A securitisation-funded specialist financing recruitment, staffing and consultancy receivables, advancing up to 100 per cent of invoice value with no concentration limits, on facilities to around £10m.
Time Finance plc
AIM-listed independent SME lender offering invoice finance, hard asset finance, and secured business loans to UK businesses, focused on the sub-£3.5m ticket.
Asset finance & leasing13
Hire purchase, leasing and refinance against plant, vehicles and equipment.
BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions
The bank-owned equipment and vendor finance arm of BNP Paribas, funding plant, technology and industrial assets through hire purchase, leasing and sale and leaseback across a twenty-country group.
BPCE Equipment Solutions
The UK equipment finance arm of French mutual group BPCE, formerly Societe Generale Equipment Finance, writing hire purchase and leases from £5k to £25m per asset.
Caterpillar Financial Services
The captive finance arm of Caterpillar, funding new and used Cat plant through hire purchase and leases, routed mainly through the UK dealer network.
CHG-Meridian UK
An independent technology and equipment lessor based in Egham, leasing IT, industrial and healthcare assets to large corporates and the public sector, with sale and leaseback alongside.
Close Brothers Invoice Finance
The invoice finance and ABL arm of Close Brothers Group plc, one of the UK's longest-established merchant banks, offering facilities from single-debtor factoring to structured multi-asset ABL across a wide UK SME and mid-market client base.
DLL UK
Rabobank's asset finance arm, funding equipment through manufacturer and dealer programmes across agriculture, construction, healthcare, technology and the energy transition.
Haydock Finance
An independent asset finance lender in the North West, broker-distributed and securitisation-funded, with a dedicated team for transactions above £500k.
Lombard
NatWest Group's asset finance business and the largest in the UK, funding vehicles, plant and specialist assets to around £5m a transaction, with 24-hour decisions on smaller tickets.
Novuna Business Finance
The UK's largest non-bank asset finance provider, part of Mitsubishi HC Capital, writing equipment finance, block discounting and £3m to £15m of sustainable project finance.
PEAC Solutions UK
An independent hard-asset lender funding plant, machinery and industrial equipment, lending only where the asset has clear resale value.
Praetura Asset Finance
The Manchester group's asset finance arm, writing hire purchase, leases and asset refinance from around £7,500 to £5m for owner-managed businesses, underwritten manually.
Siemens Financial Services
The financing arm of Siemens, combining equipment finance with project, structured and corporate lending across healthcare, industrial, data centre, energy and infrastructure assets.
Simply Asset Finance
A wholesale-funded independent lending hire purchase, leases and asset equity release against plant, vehicles and machinery, with a book above £500m and offices across the UK.
A curated reference map drawn from public sources: informational, not a ranking or a recommendation.