FEATURES
ABLs Face Excess Liquidity, Fierce Competition… And It’s Not Abating Anytime Soon - With so much liquidity in the marketplace and the need to deploy it, banks and other lenders are entering the asset-based lending marketplace. 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.
2013 ABL Marketplace Survey: Good News/Bad News - Good News/Bad News:
ABLs Say Senior Management “Like the Way They Look”
ABLs Voice Concerns Over Pricing, Structuring & Loyalty
‘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 federal and state reimbursements and increases in healthcare and other costs. Katz notes the special challenges in restructuring a "mission driven" organization that impacts livelihoods as well as lives
Film Financing… It’s Not About Box Office Performance - In a Q&A with ABF Journal publisher Jerry Parrotto, Joe Woolf, executive vice president, media and entertainment finance, OneWest Bank, talks about the key risks with film production loans, which usually involve a detailed cash-flow budget, timeline to produce the film and a collateral pool known as "pre-sales" to support the financing. Lenders will typically mitigate risk via the engagement of a third party that monitors production and cash-flows to ensure the project is completed on time and on budget.
Villanova 2013 — Today’s Lending Environment: Industry-Specific Observations - At the sixth annual Education and Networking Conference sponsored by the New York Institute of Credit, the Philadelphia chapters of the Turnaround Management Association and Commercial Finance Association 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.
Regulatory Reform: Regime Changes Looming… What It Means to Secured Lenders - 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.
FROM ALL FACETS
TURNAROUND CORNER
The 13-Week Cash-Flow… Keeping Your Eyes on the Road & Your Hands on the Wheel - Business founders and key management are often more positive about a situation than an objective third party. However, this optimism can very quickly cause — or exacerbate — a cash-flow crisis. Gavin/Solmonese director Luke Snyder says a well-crafted 13-week cash-flow model serves as a reality check for all stake holders and highlights a logical path forward.
SPECIALTY LENDING SHOP
Full-Cycle Financing… 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.
BANKRUPTCY UPDATE
Option Contracts in Bankruptcy — Flexibility with Risk - Sophisticated market participants are increasingly using option contracts to provide flexibility to traditional borrowing or purchase and sale agreements. However, as Lowenstein Sandler's S. Jason Teele and Tania Ingman point out, there are a number of interesting complications to this type of transaction when one party is distressed.
LEGAL EYES
Certainty of Execution — 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. Paul Hastings attorneys Mario Ippolito, Peter Burke, Jennifer Yount & Shafiq Perry examine the key negotiated terms of an ABL facility in the context of a leveraged finance transaction.
FINALCUT
FinalCut: Former Burdale Executive Team to Lead New ABL - 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.