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.
What they do
White Oak lends in the UK through both an asset-based platform and a senior secured private credit strategy, so a borrower can be funded against its assets, against its cashflow, or against both in one structure. Facilities run from around £5m to £50m. Sector strengths are industrial: manufacturing, engineering, aerospace and defence, healthcare and life sciences. The wider group is institutionally funded rather than deposit-funded, and its European asset-based business has drawn wholesale lines from major banks to expand lending capacity.
Where they fit in a lower-mid-market raise
Where a business sits at the top of a £3–15m raise and has both a real asset base and enough earnings to support cashflow debt, the ability to combine the two under one lender avoids the intercreditor negotiation a club of two would require. The industrial sector focus is a genuine advantage for manufacturers and defence suppliers, where asset values need underwriting by someone who has seen the equipment before.
Where they are not the fit
The floor of around £5m rules out the bottom of the band, and pricing sits above both clearing banks and bank-owned asset-based lenders. This is institutional money with the covenant package and reporting to match, so a borrower wanting a light-touch relationship facility should look at the banks first.
Published terms
- Pricing
- Not published
- Speed to terms
- Not published
- Sponsored or sponsorless
- Both - explicit lean to direct/corporate origination (not sponsor auctions)
- Where they lend
- (offices Chester and Glasgow); parent operates US, Canada, Australia; some cross-border UK-US ABL
- How they decide
- 20+ bank referral relationships
- Security
- A borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant
- Covenants
- Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit
As published by the lender and last reviewed June 2026. Terms quoted on a deal are set by the credit, not by a published band.
The desks that lend
White Oak UK lends through 2 separate books. Which one reads a deal decides the security, the covenant package and the band, so the question is rarely whether White Oak UK lends, but which of these would own it.
Asset-based lending (revolver)
- Facility
- £5m to £50m
- Security
- A borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant
- Covenants
- Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit
- Funds
- Growth · Refinance · Turnaround
- Rules out
- Borrower turnover typically £10m-£250m; Trading 3+ years; £5m facility floor sits above the low end of the £3-15m band
UK senior-secured private credit / direct lending strategy
- Security
- Senior-secured, asset-backed
- Funds
- Acquisition · Growth · Refinance
- Rules out
- Direct-originated, not sponsor-auction driven; Per-deal ticket band not published
Limits that apply across the firm
Stated limits, taken from White Oak UK’s own published criteria, beyond the ones each desk carries above. A limit is where a lender starts from, not where it always ends: several of these move on a strong enough credit.
- No appetite in adult, crypto, gambling or weapons
How they sit against the category
- Its published ceiling of £50m is among the 4 highest of the 40 asset-based lenders here.
- Like 29 of the 40, it publishes no indicative price — a margin comes from a conversation, not a page.
Counted across the 40 asset-based & asset-finance lenders in this directory, on what each one publishes. What a lender discloses and what it will do are different things.
Questions this page answers
How large a facility does White Oak UK write?
Published facilities run £5m to £50m. A band is what a lender states it will do, not what it will do on a given credit.
What security does White Oak UK take?
On the published terms, a borrowing base over receivables, inventory and plant. What a lender takes on a given facility is set in the documents, not by a published stance.
Does White Oak UK lend to companies without a private-equity sponsor?
Yes. White Oak UK lends to owner-managed and sponsor-backed borrowers alike, so a company with no private-equity backer is not out of scope on that ground.
Where does White Oak UK lend?
(offices Chester and Glasgow); parent operates US, Canada, Australia; some cross-border UK-US ABL.
What covenants does White Oak UK set?
Springing covenant, tested only when a trigger is hit. A covenant package is negotiated on the facility; the published style is where the negotiation starts.
On the record
November 2025: joined UKEF General Export Facility as a non-bank lender (gtreview.com.
February 2025: closed $125m multicurrency credit facility from Wells Fargo (whiteoakuk.com.
June 2026: launched £1.5bn UK senior-secured private-credit strategy for industrial SMEs/mid-market; >£3bn originated in the UK since 2018 (cityam.com / businesswire.com.
February 2026: provided $35m ABL revolver + $20m uncommitted accordion to Unicat Catalyst Technologies (morningstar.com/Business Wire.
November 2025: Michael Levenstein joined as Business Development Director from Investec (whiteoakuk.com.
Sources: whiteoakuk.com · cityam.com
This profile is a curated reference note drawn from public sources, not financial advice or a recommendation. Appetite and terms change; a lender's fit for a given credit is established by approaching it, not inferred from a page.