Synovus launched a new restaurant finance team focused on helping restaurants across the United States.
Residing in Synovus’ wholesale banking division and based in Atlanta, the restaurant finance team will offer an array of services to the foodservice industry, including acquisition financing, senior credit facilities (term loans, development loans and revolving lines of credit), property company financing, loan syndications, derivatives hedging, treasury management and foreign exchange and institutional trust expertise. The team consists of restaurant industry and banking veterans Scott Tocci, Kelly Nyquist and Jay Sim.
“Restaurants are a major source of economic growth and development throughout Synovus’ five-state footprint and the country,” Kevin Howard, executive vice president and chief wholesale banking officer for Synovus, said. “Our new restaurant finance team combines the resources of a large financial institution with industry expertise, a deep understanding of market conditions, the knowledge of restaurant equity and debt investor needs, and the flexibility to work with middle-market to large market clients. We are confident this team will be an important source of value creation for Synovus and the growing number of restaurant industry businesses and clients. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Scott, Kelly and Jay to Synovus.”
Tocci, who will serve as senior director of Synovus’ restaurant finance team, is a banking professional with more than 25 years in the restaurant financing sector. Prior to joining Synovus, he spent more than eight years as managing director of the restaurant banking division at Regions Bank and 11 years as managing director at GE Franchise Finance.
Nyquist, who will serve as senior manager of wholesale credit risk management for Synovus’ restaurant finance team, has more than 15 years of banking experience and also joined Synovus from Regions Bank, where he worked alongside Tocci on the specialized restaurant banking team. Prior to Regions, he was part of Bank of America’s franchise finance team and worked at CompuCredit as a securitization financial analyst.
Sim, who will serve as senior wholesale credit manager for Synovus’ restaurant finance team, is a more than 20-year banking veteran with experience in restaurant credit analysis and underwriting. Prior to joining Synovus, he spent more than 10 years at Regions Bank and worked with Tocci and Kelly on the specialized restaurant banking team. Preceding Regions, Sim worked at Bank of America in restaurant finance credit, underwriting and analysis.
