BNP Paribas Asset Management and CODE Investing complete first SME loan

Grand plans for entering the SME lending market, first announced a year or so ago, by BNP Paribas Asset Management are multi-faceted; involving both platform partnerships as well as in house origination.

BNP Paribas Asset Management, through its strategic partnership with SME lending platform CODE Investing, has completed an unsecured loan to Hampshire-based Apex Prime Care.

The loan, its first under its partnership with CODE, is an 8-year unsecured loan completed within one month of Apex's initial engagement with CODE Investing in December 2018.  The amount is undisclosed.

Stéphane Blanchoz, head of SME alternative financing at the firm, speaking to AltFi exclusively last year said it had plans to originate €1 billion a year in SME loans in Europe, with at least €400m in the UK through a mixture of partnerships and in house origination via unsecured loans of between £500,000 and £5m.

BNP Paribas Asset Management also counts Caple as an origination partner and AltFi understands the firm is on the hunt for more partners to help reach its ambitious growth plans.

Blanchoz, said: “There has been a structural shift in the way that SMEs access financing and through the partnership with CODE Investing, our SME Alternative Financing platform is able to offer SMEs access to development capital that is less freely available from traditional sources.”