Capital rethink: Business leaders call for new finance options

There is a renewed push by Australian business leaders to provide capital-starved small businesses better access to finance from new sources, including the country's multi-billion dollar superannuation pool.

Visy Industries executive chairman Anthony Pratt on Tuesday pointed to a global financial technology company with Australian links, Greensill Capital, as a new model for delivering working capital to small businesses.

“Lex Greensill’s outfit is growing at around 300 per cent a year. It provided $US800 million in working capital in 2017, jumping 400 per cent to over $3 billion to June this year to more than 25,000 ," Mr Pratt told an event he organised that was facilitated by Fairfax Media.

Mr Greenshill, who grew up in Queensland but is based in London, was also at Tuesday's round table. He told Fairfax Media ahead of the roundtable discussion it was clear Australian businesses had an increasing need for his company's model.

"SMEs want flexible capital that allows them to grow. And globally, Greensill is the biggest in the world at what we do," he said. Read more

Emma Koehn - Brisbane Times - 23 October 2018