TSL Feature Articles

  • Anatomy of a Deal: Entrepreneurial
    Oct 10, 2023
    Joseph Heim and Jamie Franz of Culain Capital illustrate a recent deal and how being creative is critical to victory.
  • Gen Merritt Parikh-Headshot_150 Anatomy of a Deal: Participations
    At Haversine Funding, we take pride in offering unique and flexible alternatives to our clients. The adaptability built into our DNA allows us to provide senior and junior lines of credit - exclusively to factors and lenders - ensuring we don’t compete with our clients.
  • Anatomy of a Deal: Non-Bank ABL Solutions - Maximizing Availability and Flexibility

    White Oak executives detail a complex deal that unlocked substantial liquidity for an asset-heavy borrower in a non-traditional ABL industry.

  • Anatomy of a Deal: Distilling the Right Financial Solution for a Whiskey Business
    Sep 26, 2023
    In 2020, companies across the globe experienced challenges that had previously only been hypothetical scenarios posed by business school professors. Fast forward to 2023: taking their learnings from the unprecedented events of 2020, businesses are exploring capital preservation and unique, flexible financial solutions that will support their company through the next economic challenge. Throughout this article, we will walk through how Wells Fargo completed a transaction for a new customer, working to find a solution suited to fit their needs in a unique and dynamic industry.
  • MariusSilvasan_150 Interview with eCapital’s CEO Marius Silvasan
    Sep 25, 2023
    Marius Silvasan has built eCapital into a fast-growing financial technology firm through an ambitious and impactful M&A strategy. With the successful development of a proprietary technology-driven platform, eCapital is transforming financing for small-to mid-size companies. Under Silvasan’s leadership, eCapital has grown into a multi-disciplinary team of over 700 employees which, to date, has helped 30,000+ businesses garner more than $36 billion in financing to fuel their growth.
  • Martin Efron Factoring for Success in 2023 and Beyond
    Aug 23, 2023

    Access to ready working capital is critical to the success of a business, whether it is for maintaining ongoing operations or investing in future growth. Yet, short-term liquidity constraints are common, particularly during uncertain economic times. Factoring can offer a critical lifeline – providing reliable cashflow, credit protection and trusted guidance to help companies navigate the current market challenges.

     
  • Asset-Based Lending: A Primer for Borrowers and New Hires
    Aug 17, 2023

    Asset-based lending offers many benefits to borrowers in need of capital, not the least of which is the partnership built between client and lender.

  • CharliePerer_2023 headshot_150 Putting Capital to Work - Patrick Ta Beauty: SG Credit Partners’ Consumer Products Division Helps Company Flourish
    Aug 14, 2023
    Patrick Ta was always an entrepreneur. He opened his first tanning and beauty salon at 17 years old, learning key lessons, as well as the art of the pivot that would inform his future beauty career. After closing the doors to his first venture in Scottsdale, AZ, Ta moved to Los Angeles, CA, and further explored his passion for makeup.
  • BrianResutek_Headshot_150x150 Mitigating Borrowers’ Cybersecurity Risk
    Financial and collateral review? Check. Appropriate lender agreements, carveouts and lien perfection? Check. Review of borrower’s cybersecurity policies and procedures? Can you repeat that? When it comes to lender due diligence and documentation, organizations are well versed with modeling, credit procedures and deal structures; however, there is a continually growing blind spot that lenders cannot afford to ignore: Cybersecurity. 
  • RyanJaskiewicz_150 Unleashing the Power of AI in the Secured Finance Industry: A Journey into Change and Evolution
    Aug 2, 2023
    Change is the great shapeshifter of existence. It is the unseen artist who paints the landscape of our lives with broad strokes of innovation and evolution. In the world of secured finance, change is manifesting through a potent and promising medium—Artificial Intelligence (AI). One particular AI innovation, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is at the frontier of this change, offering a path filled with opportunities and potential challenges.
  • Where Are They Now? Catching up with prior SFNet 40 Under 40 Award winners
    Jun 13, 2023
    From promotions to new jobs, award winners share their career advice for the class of 2023 winners and what they have learned.
  • Hugh Larratt-Smith_150 The Use of Covenants in a Discretionary Factoring Facility
    May 30, 2023

    SFNet’s Crucial Conversations webinar, “The Value and Effective Use of Covenants in a Factoring Transaction,”

    focused on why covenants are needed in a discretionary factoring facility; covenant types and reporting frequency; the art of picking the right covenant(s) and more. Here, panelist Hugh Larratt-Smith provides a recap of the webinar.

  • CollinZGroebe_WinstonStrawn_150 ABLs, Bitcoin Miners and Monetizing Stranded Energy
    Apr 24, 2023
    This article discusses the bitcoin mining industry’s role in providing demand support to energy producers by monetizing otherwise stranded energy produced from oil drilling and solar and wind facilities. Consumption of stranded energy by bitcoin miners should help secured lenders underwrite loans, because it can reduce air pollution resulting from natural gas flaring and improve life cycle economics of renewable energy sources. 
  • IanFredericks_Headshot_2023_150 Interview with Ian Fredericks, President - Hilco Merchant Resources – The Retail And Consumer Operating Company Within Hilco Global
    Ian Fredericks joined Hilco Global in 2011 after working successfully as a distressed merger and acquisition and corporate restructuring attorney. Over the course of his career, Fredericks has negotiated and closed hundreds of transactions involving tens of billions of dollars. In 2017, he was a recipient of M&A Advisor’s Emerging Leaders award and in 2022 was named to the executive committee of the Secured Finance Network board of directors.
  • The Story of Foothill Capital
    In this new feature series, “The Story of,” Charlie Perer sits with the key entrepreneurs and executives who have built leading commercial finance companies to talk about the origins of their respective firms. The purpose of this series is to tell the story behind many of the most famous and dynamic firms of past, present and future. The first feature is about Foothill Capital, which, of course was acquired by Norwest in 1998 and later by Wells Fargo. The core team at Foothill went on to be leaders at Wells Fargo Capital Finance and throughout the entire commercial finance industry.
  • Michele Ocejo In the Spotlight: Women-Dominated Teams in Secured Finance
    Apr 3, 2023
    It’s no secret that, despite great progress in the last couple of decades, secured finance remains a male-dominated field. Here, we shine the spotlight on three unique SFNet members whose teams are made up of more women than men.
  • Michele Ocejo It’s All About the People
    There are few individuals more genuinely positive and upbeat than SFNet’s own Michele Ocejo. On her 30th anniversary of joining SFNet, I took the opportunity to sit down with our heralded but unassuming director of communications and discussed the importance of relationships, making an impact, and the joy she gets from sharing people’s stories.
  • TSL0323_RetentionArt Taking a More Proactive Approach to Retention
    Secured finance, much like the rest of financial services, is often a high-pressure industry, requiring long hours to resolve client concerns, handle due diligence, and scout for new prospects. Professionals in the field are commonly answering emails in the wee hours of the morning and late into the night. But the greying of the industry and attrition are causing secured finance executives to take a long, hard look at employee concerns, as well as DEI, recruitment, and retention initiatives.
  • Norma Kuntz-Headshot-150 Interview with Gordon Brothers’ New CEO Norma Kuntz
    Mar 20, 2023

    In December, Gordon Brothers announced that Norma Kuntz would be appointed CEO of the company, effective February 13, 2023. Ken Frieze and Michael Frieze will continue to serve the company as chairman and chairman emeritus, respectively.

    Kuntz joined Gordon Brothers as its president and chief operating officer in June 2022 and quickly demonstrated her readiness to lead the firm. Prior to Gordon Brothers, she served as the chief operating officer and chief financial officer of global private equity at The Carlyle Group. Her nearly 25 years of financial services industry experience includes global roles within private equity, asset management, alternative investments and valuations, positioning her well to lead a multi-disciplinary global firm poised for growth.

  • KimDesmarais (1) Crypto-Based Lending and the 2022 UCC Amendments
    Feb 6, 2023
    In this article, the author revisits cryptocurrency-based lending and how the 2022 UCC amendments provide welcome clarity to lending transactions involving digital assets.

Click on the link below to meet some of the “difference makers” in the secured finance community. This issue of The Secured Lender celebrates those who are having a profound impact on both their communities and their organizations. 

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