Together helps dairy farmer consolidate debt with £1.4m bridging loan

Together has provided a £1.4m unregulated bridging loan for a farmer to consolidate his debt ahead of retirement.

The organic farmer, who has worked on his family’s 200-acre business for nearly three decades, was left with severe cash flow problems during a six-month period when he was unable to sell his milk because of a salmonella outbreak among his herd.

To overcome his financial difficulties, he took out six emergency loans in 2023.

With the herd now fully vaccinated and performing well, he was looking to refinance into a single loan that would be more manageable and easier to repay from the sale of two farmhouses, their outbuildings and surrounding land.

As the properties served as both working farms and family residences, the case required careful management of occupancy arrangements, using formal AST agreements, alongside wider legal due diligence.

Having worked with Together on several large commercial cases before, intermediary Equity One Finance Ltd was confident that the lender would be able to support the client’s plans.

Together agreed the loan on a 12-month term, secured against both Devon farm properties, at 48% LTV on a retained interest basis.

Dan Narwal, Together’s intermediary corporate account director, commented: “Multiple existing loans can become an administrative burden for smaller independent businesses like our client, and can often make transitioning out of that business more complicated.

“Consolidating a large debt like this, with a clear and viable exit plan, allowed the client to get their finances in order and move towards an orderly downsizing and retirement.”

Dale Robinson, director at EquityOne, said: “This case had a few stumbling blocks due to issues surrounding unregistered land, occupancy of the security properties and a historic CCJ tied to the property, but not the borrower.

“Together’s team diligently helped us work through these issues and kept the case moving forward.

“My client can now put his plans in place without the additional financial burden of managing multiple loans.”