Isle of Man-based Manx Financial Group has acquired the asset-based lender ECF Asset Finance for £1.

Isle of Man-based Manx Financial Group (MFG) has acquired the asset-based lender ECF Asset Finance for £1.

MFG’s banking subsidiary, Conister Bank, acquired the ECF loan book for £12.2 million, which has £14.3 million of gross receivables. ECF also has approximately £1.1 million in cash which will be available to MFG.

Denham Eke, CEO of MFG, comments that the acquisition will increase the value of the group’s loan book by over a quarter and increase interest income. He adds: ‘The ECF team supplements our existing skills in sales, underwriting and collections, especially for commercial lending. The group board continues to look for similar acquisition opportunities for growth.’

Manchester-based ECF provides finance products including finance leases and commercial loans to UK-based SMEs. The company employs 16 staff and in the year to December 2009 declared a loss of £84,458 on a turnover of £3.2 million, and had net assets of £15.7 million.

Founded in 1935, AIM-listed MFG provides services such as banking and wealth management through its subsidiaries Conister Bank, Conister Card Services and Edgewater Associates.