Close Brothers Group Profile
Close Brothers Group plc, a merchant banking company, engages in the provision of financial services to small businesses and individuals in the United Kingdom.
The company invested significantly in its digital capabilities across the organisation. In Savings, the company's deposit platform has enabled it to broaden its offering with the launch of easy access accounts and cash ISAs, whilst achieving excellent customer satisfaction scores. In Motor Finance, the company has introduced new channels for its customers who fall behind with their vehicle finance payments to catch up and pay. The company's Property business has more widely rolled out the use of electronic signing, and its EkegPlus offering in Brewery Rentals gives customers.
The company's commercial businesses provide specialist, predominantly secured lending principally to the SME market and include Asset Finance and Invoice and Speciality Finance. The company finances a diverse range of sectors, with Asset Finance offering commercial asset financing, hire purchase and leasing solutions across a broad range of assets, including commercial vehicles, machine tools, contractors' plant, printing equipment, company car fleets, energy project finance, and aircraft and marine vessels, as well as its Vehicle Hire business. The Invoice and Speciality Finance business provides debt factoring, invoice discounting and asset-based lending, as well as covering two of its specialist businesses, Brewery Rentals. The company is a leading U.K. merchant banking group providing lending, deposit taking, wealth management services, and securities trading.
The company's banking offering includes hire purchase, leases and loans for capital assets; debt factoring; invoice discounting; asset-based lending; other specialist financing for SMEs; used car, motorcycle and light commercial vehicle financing; insurance premium financing; development finance for residential housing; refurbishment and bridging finance; and savings products for individuals and corporates. CBAM offering include bespoke investment management; socially responsible investment service; inheritance tax service; financial planning; investment solutions for both CBAM clients and distributed through third-party IFAs; and platform and custody services. The company's securities offering includes market making, investment trusts advisory and broking, Winterflood Business Services, and institutional sales trading.
Strategy
The company's strategy is to provide exceptional service to its customers and clients across lending, savings, trading and wealth management.
Segments
The company operates through five segments: Commercial, Retail, Property, Asset Management, and Securities.
Commercial
Commercial lends to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through the company's direct sales force and third-party distribution channels.
Asset Finance provides commercial asset financing, hire purchase and leasing solutions for a diverse range of assets and sectors to over 28,000 customers. Invoice and Speciality Finance works with small businesses to provide debt factoring, invoice discounting and asset-based lending and includes some of the company's smaller specialist businesses.
Retail
Retail provides finance to individuals and businesses through a network of intermediaries. Motor Finance provides several products at point of sale in a dealership, or online via a broker, which allow consumers to buy vehicles from over 4,200 retailers in the U.K. Premium Finance helps make insurance payments more manageable for people and businesses, by allowing them to spread the cost over fixed instalments. It works with 1,400 insurance brokers in the U.K. and Ireland.
Property
Property provides short-term residential development finance for experienced professionals through Property Finance and offers refurbishment and bridging loans through Commercial Acceptances. Lends to professional property developers with a focus on small to medium-sized residential developments.
Securities
Winterflood is a leading market maker, delivering high-quality execution services to approximately 600 stockbrokers, wealth managers, institutional investors and other market counterparties. It also provides corporate advisory services to investment trusts and institutional sales trading. Winterflood Business Services (WBS) provides outsourced dealing and custody solutions to over 60 corporate clients.
History
Close Brothers Group plc was founded in 1878. The company was incorporated in 1953.
