ABL Intelligence

The Intelligence Credit Report

A deep, independent credit report on any UK business you need to assess. Built on years of senior risk judgement, delivered at the speed and scale your decisions need.

What an ABL Credit Report tells you

Off-the-shelf credit reports tell you what's on file. An ABL Credit Report tells you what to make of it — cross-checked against everything we've ever seen, scored on a deterministic model and traced back to the evidence behind every line.

Each report covers a single UK company in depth. The platform pulls the data and scores it on a model that carries years of senior risk judgement built in — calibrated by the team, refreshed daily, and consistent across every report we produce. The result reads like a credit committee paper, not a database printout.

Reports are produced for clients only — never sold over the counter.
Built into every report

We score the economy the borrower is actually trading in — not the one in last year's accounts.

Most credit reports show you the borrower's financial position from 12 to 18 months ago. They don't show you what's happened to the sector since.

A haulage business with strong filed accounts looks fine on paper. But if fuel prices have spiked, supply chains have broken or a major customer's industry has gone into reverse — the risk on that facility has changed, and the standard credit limit hasn't moved.

Our model recalibrates against current economic conditions and sector signals as they happen. Energy costs, FX moves, payment-behaviour shifts, sector insolvency rates — all feed back into the score on every facility we touch. The borrower's accounts are still in the report. They're just not the only thing it tells you.

Same principle, every sector we touch

Each industry is exposed to different shocks. Our model carries different weights for each. Six examples of where standard credit reports lag the economic picture — and what we're factoring in.

Haulage & Logistics
Hormuz shut · diesel spike
Standard view
Filed accounts to Sept 2024. Profitable.
What we factor in
Strait of Hormuz is shut and Arabian Peninsula crude is off the global market. Diesel spot prices have spiked. Fuel surcharges in fixed-price haulage contracts can't move fast enough — the operator swallows the cost. Hardest hit: supermarket and FMCG distribution. Best protected: spot-freight operators and anyone with monthly rate adjustments built into the contract.
Construction
Rates · cost stack
Standard view
Order book strong. Pipeline healthy.
What we factor in
BoE rate still in the 4-5% range. Hormuz adds to the cost story — diesel for plant, bitumen, steel (energy-heavy to produce) and cement all up. Fixed-price contracts signed before the shock are taking the hit; anyone on cost-plus is protected. Sub-contractor failures still running well above 2022-23.
Hospitality
Energy spike · spend drops
Standard view
Trading. Last year's covers were full.
What we factor in
NLW went up 6.7% in April 2025 (£11.44 to £12.21). Now Qatar LNG is off the market with Hormuz shut, so gas and electricity bills are spiking. Food costs are rising too as fertiliser supply chains break. Customers have less spare cash. Mid-market casual dining gets squeezed worst — can't put prices up far enough without losing covers.
Care & Healthcare
Energy · medical supply
Standard view
Beds full. Accounts stable.
What we factor in
Wage costs still going up faster than what local authorities are paying. Hormuz adds to it — energy bills on 24-hour homes are spiking, food costs for residents are up. Helium supply (mainly Qatar) is broken too, so medical equipment — oxygen, MRI, anything that needs it — is under pressure, with knock-on issues across the NHS. LA-funded operators can't put their fees up; private-pay homes can, but slowly.
Manufacturing
Inputs blocked · energy spike
Standard view
Order book holding. Margins look fine.
What we factor in
Industrial energy costs spiking sharply now Qatar LNG is off the market. Fertiliser and ammonia exports out of the Gulf are blocked too — chemicals, plastics and food-production manufacturers are losing core inputs. Helium (mostly Qatari) is breaking — semiconductor, electronics and welding-heavy manufacturers can't run at full output. Anyone who can't put their prices up gets their margins killed. Sterling weakness adds to the bill on USD-priced inputs.
Retail
Spend drops · supplier shock
Standard view
Stores still open. Stock turning.
What we factor in
People's spare cash is getting eaten faster — energy, food, fuel all up on top of what was already there, with Hormuz now in the mix. Spend on extras drops away fastest at the cheaper end of the market. Suppliers are passing their own cost rises on; the retailer either swallows it or loses sales. Premium and high-end shops can put prices up; budget-end shops can't. Business rates revaluation April 2026 still landing on top of all of it.
Sector narrative reviewed and refreshed against current data weekly. Last reviewed: 5 May 2026.

Three things make this defensible.

01

Continuous, not annual

The model recalibrates as the inputs move — not when next year's accounts file. A score generated this morning reflects this morning's data.

02

Built for each sector

Haulage cares about fuel. Care homes care about wages. Construction cares about rates. Each sector's score is shaped by the things that actually drive losses in that sector — not a one-size-fits-all formula.

03

Auditable trail

Every score change traces back to the input that drove it. When a facility's risk band moves, you see exactly why — defensible to your committee, defensible to your auditor, defensible to the regulator.

A complete view of one company

Every report draws on the same engine that screens every facility we underwrite. Built around the subject company — and everything connected to it.

Company profile & status

Registration, structure, trading status, filings, group relationships. The full picture of what the company is and how it sits in the wider corporate landscape.

Director histories

Every current and past director, every other appointment they've held, every dissolved or insolvent company on their record. The patterns that tell you who you're really dealing with.

Financial signal

Filed accounts, ratios, trend analysis, sector benchmarks, payment behaviour. Not just what the numbers say — what they actually mean for the credit decision in front of you.

Charges & secured exposure

Who already has security, what's outstanding, what's been satisfied, where the priority sits. Essential context before any new lending decision.

Risk score, fully explained

A clear, evidenced credit score broken down across a defined set of dimensions. No black box. Every line of the score traces back to the data behind it — defensible to your committee, defensible to your auditor.

Ongoing monitoring

Once a company is on file, the engine keeps watching. New filings, new charges, new insolvency notices, new payment behaviour — you hear about them when they happen, not at the next renewal.

Who reads them

An ABL Credit Report is written for the people who carry the risk — underwriters, credit committees, portfolio managers, anyone evaluating a UK counterparty.

They're not marketing collateral. They're decision-grade documents. The same report that goes to one lender's underwriting team goes to another's investment committee, another's auditor and another's regulator.

If you have to defend a credit decision to anyone, an ABL Credit Report is the document that does it for you.

  • 01
    Underwriters & credit committees Get the full picture on a counterparty before you commit — not just what's on the credit reference's database.
  • 02
    Portfolio & oversight teams Run periodic credit checks across your book with one consistent engine. Spot deterioration before the renewal date.
  • 03
    Investors & debt advisors Independent verification on any UK company you're evaluating — signed by a name your stakeholders trust.
  • 04
    Auditors & regulators Every finding is sourced, timestamped and defensible. When the question is "how did you know?", the answer is in the report.
How to get one

Reports are commissioned, not downloaded.

Intelligence Reports are bespoke — designed to give you an insight into a business you won't find anywhere else. Every one starts with a conversation.

Start the Conversation

Decide with Conviction.

An ABL Credit Report puts the full picture of a counterparty in front of you, and the evidence behind it on the record. Tell us which company you need to know about.