ABLs Face Excess Liquidity, Fierce Competition
ABF Journal speaks with five ABL leaders to get their insights on today's competitive lending environment and their respective strategies to stimulate deal flow and to differentiate their institutions on such a crowded playing field.
By Lisa Miller, ABFJ Contributor

'Mission Driven' — Restructuring Lower Bucks Hospital
Restructuring expert Robert Katz analyzes the turnaround of Lower Bucks Hospital, which found itself in a cash-flow crisis due to reductions in government reimbursements and increases in healthcare costs. Katz notes the special challenges in restructuring a "mission driven" organization that impacts livelihoods as well as lives.
By Robert D. Katz, Executive Sounding Board Associates

Film Financing…It's Not About Box Office Performance
In a Q&A with ABF Journal publisher Jerry Parrotto, Joe Woolf, EVP of media and entertainment finance at OneWest Bank, talks about the key risks with film production loans and how lenders mitigate risk.

Villanova 2013 — Today's Lending Environment
At the sixth annual Education and Networking Conference, sponsored by NYIC, the Philadelphia chapters of the TMA and CFA and the ABF Journal, four leaders in the commercial lending space offered their perspectives on today's lending environment and provided observations from their respective areas of specialization.

Strategic Alliances — How ABLs Can Better Serve International Clients
Many lenders are able to fully satisfy a client’s domestic needs on their own, but this may change when a client enters the international market. A partnership between lenders with differing specialties can provide the greatest value for a client with international needs and ensure a successful long-term relationship for all involved.
By Sami Altaher, FGI Finance

Regulatory Reform: Regime Changes Looming
The financial crisis resulted in impending loan-related regulatory reform. Meredith Coffey of the Loan Syndications and Trading Association discusses which measures are looming and describes several significant changes that will become realities for secured lenders in the short-term.
By Meredith Coffey, LSTA

FROM ALL FACETS

TURNAROUND CORNER
The 13-Week Cash-Flow
Business founders and key management are often more positive about a situation than an objective third party. However, this optimism can cause a cash-flow crisis. A well-crafted 13-week cash-flow model can serve as a reality check for all stakeholders.
By Luke D. Snyder, Gavin/Solmonese

SPECIALTY LENDING
Lenders Commercial Finance Launches Factoring Alternative
Looking for a way to help small and mid-sized businesses overcome the limitations of traditional business loans, entrepreneurs Ken Wilkens, Steve Tarpley and Cal McGinnis of Lenders Commercial Finance designed the Full-Cycle Financing program as a more flexible alternative to a traditional factoring loan.
By Megen T. Donovan, Assistant Editor

BANKRUPTCY UPDATE
Option Contracts in Bankruptcy
Sophisticated market participants are increasingly using option contracts to provide flexibility to traditional borrowing or purchase and sale agreements. However, there are a number of interesting complications to this type of transaction when one party is distressed.
By S. Jason Teele & Tania Ingman, Lowenstein Sandler

LEGAL EYES
Asset-Based Lending in Leveraged Finance
ABL facilities allow borrowers to obtain higher leverage at a lower cost compared to cash-flow-based term debt, while also providing certainty of execution and a flexible covenant package.
By Mario Ippolito, Peter Burke, Jennifer Yount & Shafiq Perry, Paul Hastings

FINALCUT
ABF Journal illustrator Jerry Gonzalez shares his creative rendering of the launch of Siena Lending Group, which provides ABLs to small and mid-market businesses and offers an asset-based product for community banks.