LONDON.- Leading classic car auctioneer H&H Classics have struck a finance deal that will allow auction consignors to access a significant portion of the value of their car or motorcycle well in advance of sale.

The supply agreement with Unbolted, a peer-to-peer lending platform, creates a sale advance facility providing up to 70% of the low-estimate valuation to the consignor where an agreement is struck.

Unbolted lets individuals plus small and medium enterprises borrow against their assets with the lowest lending rate in the business.

The two partners in the project are also developing a new financing solution for buyers to help them capitalise on new opportunities at auction.

Nick Delaney, Business Development Manager of H&H Classics, says: “Both types of facility are safe and reliable methods designed to bring liquidity to asset-rich collectors and entrepreneurs, allowing them to move quickly on opportunities rather than missing the boat while negotiating cumbersome and costly credit facilities with banks.

“This dynamic approach heralds a new era for H&H Classics following the ground-breaking sale of the Richard Colton collection in October.”

That multi-million pound sale at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, Cambridgeshire included some of the world’s finest cars, such as the late Richard Colton’s 1960 Ferrari 250GT SWB, sold for £7,392,000 ($11.5m), a world record for a steel-bodied example, which alone made H&H Classics one of only five auction houses to sell a car at auction for more than $10,000,000.

The sale made headline news round the world as the proceeds from that and another Colton Ferrari, which took £2.16m, constituted the largest single gift ever made to Britain’s favourite charity, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), the sea rescue service that patrols the country’s coasts.

Mark Magnacca, Chief Marketing Officer of Unbolted says: “H&H is one of the leading motor vehicle auction houses and they have already been providing the valuations and storage for our existing customers. This new facility will easily unlock the investment value for H&H’s network of collectors and car enthusiasts.”

Unbolted is part of the technological revolution. It is an online-only, peer-to-peer (p2p) asset lending platform. “We saw the transformation of financial services and wondered why no-one had provided the mass affluent with access to the same type of services that private banking customers have received for years,” explains Co-Founder Rito Haldar.

Nick Delaney agrees: “H&H Classics are constantly looking at ways of making it easier for our clients to do business. Removing unnecessary barriers, as with this scheme, is part of that process.”