º£½ÇÊÓƵ

Birmingham's Legion Trade Finance and Tower Trade Group have formed a joint venture aimed at providing innovative trade finance solutions to º£½ÇÊÓƵ corporates.

Legion, which opened an office in Birmingham's Brindleyplace earlier this year, and Lausanne-headquartered Tower have joined forces to launch Legion Tower Trade (LTT).

The JV combines Legion's established º£½ÇÊÓƵ operations with Tower's funding and financing platform. 

It will provide short-term trade finance facilities to companies of all sizes which need to pay their suppliers for goods worldwide. There is no upper limit on facility size, with all credit worthy cases considered.

The JV is a complementary addition to Legion's existing trade finance business which will continue to focus on sub-£2 million facilities to º£½ÇÊÓƵ SMEs.

Robin Smith, chairman of Legion, said: "We are delighted to be partnering with Tower and combining our respective strengths to enhance Legion’s offering.

"We have developed a strong presence at the smaller end of the º£½ÇÊÓƵ trade finance market and we will continue to focus on facilities of up to £2 million in our core business."

He added: "The addition of the JV to our war chest allows Legion to now offer much larger facilities to companies of all sizes, with no upper limit on our capacity."

Charles Reynolds, chairman of Tower, said: "Tower is building a substantial international trade finance business with our proprietary platform and significant funding lines.

"We believe the º£½ÇÊÓƵ offers exciting growth potential, especially as the recovery gathers momentum, with capital still in short supply. 

"We have been looking for the right partner for some time to enter the º£½ÇÊÓƵ and are delighted to be working with Legion in launching the JV."

The Birmingham Post has launched a free app for iPad and iPhone.