Hi °C | Lo °C The company charged with managing an Invest NI-backed £50m loan pot aimed at small and medium sized companies has had over 140 applications for funding so far.
Whiterock Capital Partners said it is "delighted" with the response to the new Growth Loan Fund which launched back in July 2012 by the agency and the Northern Ireland Local Government Officers' Superannuation Committee (NILGOSC) in an effort to ease the drought of credit to SMEs.
It wouldn't reveal how much money it has lent but has already provided credit to 13 companies in total including Aria Clothing from Belfast and Dunmurry ventilation firm Brookvent.
The loans, which range from £50,000 to £1m, are priced at interest rates above those offered by high street banks.
Whiterock is a joint venture run by the Braveheart Investment Group which revealed yesterday it made a pretax profit of £67,000 in the six months to the end of September, a big turnaround on the £842,000 it lost in the same period in 2011.
After recruiting over the last few months it now has a headcount of seven in its Northern Ireland office led by Paul Millar, Whiterock's Chief Investment Officer.
