Finding ways to improve the support available to British exporters was a central point of discussion at GTR‘s UK Trade and Export Finance conference.

Margaret Eyres, head of direct lending at UK Export Finance (UKEF), used this platform to discuss one of the agency’s latest product, the Direct Lending Scheme (DLS). The DLS, she says, can offer different products depending on different funding needs, noting that buyers in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, are very attracted by this scheme.

The first and – so far – most famous use of the DLS was through the Carillion deal, in which the British construction services company won a £75mn contract to develop phase 1 of the Dubai World Trade Centre thanks to a £34mn direct lending facility provided by the ECA. “UKEF has helped us level the playing field,” says Zafar Khan, group financial controller at Carillion.