Optare’s £23m refinance

Optare has announced a £23m refinance with Barclays. The deal was arranged by Miles Rothbury, Global Corporates Director for Barclays Corporate Banking in Manchester. Part of Ashok Leyland, Optare employs over 200 people and has a turnover in excess of £70m. CFO, Optare Plc, Ramesh Narasimhan, said, ‘Since Optare was acquired by Ashok Leyland we have a plan that required a strategic banking partner, with a global presence, a quality cross border relationship model and the willingness to back a plan by providing competitive banking facilities. Barclays has demonstrated all these features and we look forward to working with them into the future as we build the business in the UK and beyond. We consider them our “Go-To” banking partner.’

Corporates Director for Barclays Global, Miles Rothbury, said, ‘A key priority for Barclays is delivering a full international banking service to our clients. The Optare deal is the first significant global corporate deal for Barclays in the Northern region and is a good example of the type of strategic and sophisticated transactions we are supporting at Barclays. We want to do more business with the international subsidiaries of our global clients and a local understanding of a global organisation is a strong place to start.’