Peter Black was recently asked to speak at the Insider Breakfast on Professional and Financial Services in Manchester, where alongside his fellow speakers they discussed all aspects of the professional and financial services community in the North West. This was featured in the April edition of Insider. Some of the…

Private Equity investments in the UK bounced back in the first three months of 2019, after a so called ‘Brexit effect’ on the market at the back end of 2018. Deal values increased to £8.9bn between January and March, which was up from £6.1bn in the final quarter of 2018,…

Loan Stacking is the practice where businesses takes out multiple unsecured loans or cash advances on top of other unsecured loans in order to keep funding a business. The lender may or may not be aware of all the other loans and it provides a false picture to the lender…

Monies lent against the EFG, the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, fell to a record low in Q4 2018 of £55.6m and 78% below its peak in Q2 2009. The EFG scheme is used to facilitate lending to viable SME businesses with turnover less than £41m that would normally be turned…

A new survey from has revealed that the number of people who have considered going somewhere other than their bank for finance is on the increase. The insights come from a new survey conducted by business finance provider Growth Street. The firm canvassed more than 2,000 directors and employees of…

Snowball Alternative Finance would like to announce some exciting developments. In response to an increased demand for our services, resulting in the expansion of our team we are pleased to announce our move to substantially larger premises. We are now located at The Granary, Dingle Bank Farm, Holmes Chapel Road,…

The banks may be closed for business but, thanks to the emerging alternative finance market, business won’t be short of funding options, according to North West based finance expert, Peter Black. Black, managing director of Snowball Alternative Finance, supports those businesses looking to gain investment from alternatives to high street…

Snowball Alternative Finance has been appointed by Preston Trampower to secure the £25m funding for its project to get trams running in Preston for the first time since 1935. The deal will see Snowball advising on funding strategy as well as producing business plans and financial models for the project.…

There have been two fairly high-profile IPOs recently and both have disappointed on the market. Firstly, Funding Circle whose shares are down 10% from opening, albeit at one point they were down over 20%. Secondly, Aston Martin, who are down almost 20% since the IPO. It appears that the company…