Extra help to drive forward Holiday Extras

06/09/2011

A multi-million pound deal to help expand the Holiday Extras Group has been concluded by Clydesdale Bank in Kent, challenging the perception that well managed businesses are struggling to secure funding.

Holiday Extras Group, the Kent based company and number one pre-booked airport hotels and airport parking business in the UK has secured a £17.5m revolving credit facility and a £7.5m bonding and guarantee facility to support its continued growth.

The company, which employs 400 people, with 300 of them based at Holiday Extras’ head office near Hythe, has a turnover of £200m.

Cathy Beare, Group Chief Financial Officer, said: “This deal, and the support we have received on an on-going basis from Clydesdale Bank and their professional team, reinforces our belief that for well run and well managed businesses, there are supportive banks out there.

“The team at Clydesdale Bank, thoroughly understand our business and have been an integral part of Holiday Extras’ success. The deal was pulled together swiftly and professionally, with everybody working late into the night, on both sides of the table, including the legal teams of Cripps Harries Hall, and Addleshaw Goddard.”

Paul Saunders, Managing Partner at Clydesdale Bank’s Financial Solutions Centre in Maidstone, said: “Our relationship with the management team of Holiday Extras, led by Gavin Coleman, goes back to 2005 when it was one of the first major deals negotiated by the Kent team.

“It is very clear as soon as you walk into the Holiday Extras offices, and meet any of the team, that this is a business determined to succeed by providing the best possible service to its customers. The company has grown and increased employment throughout the recession and is now perfectly placed to benefit from the economic upturn.

“Nigel Stanford and the team at Cripps Harries Hall provided first class legal support to the bank all the way through this complex and strategically important deal which was delivered ahead of the completion deadline.”

The facilities were negotiated as part of Clydesdale Bank’s ‘Investing for Growth’ initiative and its commitment to lending £10 billion of new finance to UK business and mortgage customers by October 2011, is available across its 73-strong network of FSCs, 20 of which are in the London and South region.