From the best of Bordeaux to the toast of Tuscany, if you need business capital, a well-stocked wine cellar could be a very viable asset to raise finance against.
Investment-grade wine, while rare – it accounts for less than 1% of the wine market – is an asset which is appreciating rapidly, in fact, it’s estimated that after gold and commodities wine has produced the highest returns over the past decade.
That’s probably why securing finance against wine is becoming a serious option for many asset-rich entrepreneurs, who may not have the accessible funds at their fingertips, to grow their business as they would like.
Wine finance is a relatively new concept, but at Funding Guru we like to stay ahead of the game, so if you have a good collection of investment-grade wine and you are looking to raise finance secured against it, we may be able to help.
One of our independent experts can appraise your wine collection – providing it is being suitably stored, it won’t need to leave your possession – and from there we can use the value of your collection to structure a finance deal. Often this is a solution that suits you when you don’t have a perfect history of previous accounts as, like any other asset, the value of your investment-grade wine can be used to formulate a figure that we are able to lend.
As well as the year and the vintage of your wine, we will also need to consider details such as:
- How well the wine has been stored, and storage history you have and whether it’s in its original casing.
- The condition of corks and labels.
- Its provenance, including purchase information from merchants
We can arrange finance against a wide range of fine wines, as long as they fulfil the accepted criteria for investment-grade wine, and therefore have sufficient value. Investment-grade wines will usually have pedigree, longevity, a history of price appreciation and critical acclaim, amongst other characteristics.
More and more entrepreneurs are seeing the value in using alternative assets, such as wine, as a means of bridging a short-term gap in their business funding. Wine finance is more likely to be a short-term stopgap than any other type of asset funding – wine collections are retained by their owners in 95% of finance deals, compared to a 70-80 per cent rate where jewellery has been used to secure a loan.
At Funding Guru, we can almost always provide a funding solution, no matter how tricky a solution seems, so we are open to lending against a full range of alternative assets from wine to art, or classic cars to jewellery. We have a network of experienced valuation experts, so whether you want to liquidate a stash of Chateau Petrus, or use a classic car as collateral, you can be sure that we will get to know its true worth before we structure a deal.
If you’re rich in assets, such as fine wine, but lacking the short-term capital you need to propel your business forward, call us on 0333 006 9141 to talk through your options today.
