CIT, a division of First Citizens Bank, has appointed Cheryle Arevalo to the position of account executive for the Western Region of CIT’s Commercial Services business. Arevalo will be based in Los Angeles, California and will manage the relationships and loans of several clients in the region. She will also be instrumental in discovering new business opportunities, cultivating relationships with new clients and outside referral sources, and identifying the right banking products to best serve client needs.

Webster Bank is pleased to announce that it is expanding its commitment to Commercial & Industrial Middle Market Banking with the addition of David Ferretti as Senior Vice President, Market Manager, New Haven.

Ferretti reports to Douglas Scala, Regional President, New England and is responsible for providing comprehensive commercial banking services to middle market clients and prospects throughout greater New Haven County.

Bridgeport Capital is pleased to announce the addition of Bob Seidenberger as Senior Vice President of Business Development to the Bridgeport team. Bob will be opening a regional sales office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and will report to Max Toledo. Bob brings 25 years years of experience in the financial services industry and is extremely knowledgeable on all aspects of factoring.

ZenFi Networks, an innovative leader of digital infrastructure solutions in the New York and New Jersey metro region, announces today that it has secured $175 Million in Senior Secured Credit. The credit facility will be used to refinance existing debt and support continued growth initiatives as the company continues the build-out and expansion of the LinkNYC project throughout the five boroughs of New York City.

 eCapital Corp. (“eCapital”), a leading tech-enabled finance provider across North America and the UK, today announced the recent closure of a $21 million working capital line of credit to a Southern California automotive company (“the company”).

Operating profitably in a competitive industry for over a decade, the company previously met its specialized funding needs via private investors. 

CIBC Innovation Banking is pleased to announce $35 million of growth capital financing to Salt Lake City-based Impartner Inc. (“Impartner”), a leading partner relationship management (PRM) platform. Impartner plans to use the financing to increase its investments across sales & marketing, go-to-market strategy, and research & development to further accelerate its growth momentum.

After historic GDP growth and retail sales in 2021, are the days of unprecedented growth over for your retail clients? The short answer: It’s complicated.

If the last two years have shown us anything, it is that uncertainty is the new normal. When COVID shut down the economy in March 2020, the impact on the retail sector was profound. In some parts of the country, brick and mortar stores were closed for up to 90 days and in-person sales ground to a halt for all but the most essential items.

Signature Bank (Nasdaq: SBNY), a New York-based, full-service commercial bank, announced today the launch of a new business line with the appointment of a nine-person Healthcare Banking and Finance (HBF) team. The new private client banking team will provide lending services while garnering deposits to clients within the healthcare arena.

Leading the new business and HBF team is Matthew T. Huber, recently named Senior Vice President and Managing Group Director. In this capacity, Huber will oversee all aspects of the HBF team, including managing the team’s pipeline and banking activities and building a healthcare-related portfolio spanning both lending and deposit clients.

Second Avenue Capital Partners (SACP), the lending arm of SB360 Capital Partners (SB360), announced the closing of a $67.5 million term loan for The Jessica Simpson Collection, the $1 BILLION fashion empire and signature lifestyle brand inspired by and designed in collaboration with Jessica Simpson. The new financing will be used to retire an existing credit facility and provide additional liquidity to fund new growth and a rapidly expanding portfolio.

Trademarks are one of the fastest-growing collateral categories in the ABL sector—due in no small part to the ease with which owners of properly supported brands can sell their products via multiple channels, including e-commerce, m-commerce, wholesale distribution, and retail stores. On the consumer side, younger generations are driving much of the e-commerce and m-commerce demand. They have grown up absorbing branded content on Tik-Tok and Instagram and have also discovered the convenience of making brick-and-mortar returns.

MidFirst Business Credit (MFBC) announced it has provided a $5.5 million working capital facility to Group360, Inc., d/b/a We Are Alexander (“We Are Alexander”). Headquartered in St. Louis with offices in New York and Dallas, We Are Alexander provides a portfolio of integrated marketing communications services, including strategy, creative, retail marketing, packaging design and production, premedia, photography and experiential marketing.

Crestmark, the Commercial Finance Division of MetaBank®, N.A., secured a total of $12,801,160 in ABL/factoring financial solutions for 11 new clients; Crestmark Equipment Finance provided $10,080,680 in 11 new large ticket transactions and $2,320,351 in 20 new small ticket vendor transactions; and the Structured Finance group provided $1,600,000 in financing for one new client in the second half of April.

KeyBank and Beach Point Capital Management ("Beach Point"), a credit focused investment manager, announced that they have established a new joint venture middle market direct lending program with $1.5 billion in lending capacity for U.S. middle market clients.

CIT, a division of First Citizens Bank, today announced that its Power and Energy business served as coordinating lead arranger on $714 million in financing for a portfolio of thermal generation assets in California.

The proceeds were used to refinance a 1.8-gigawatt portfolio owned by subsidiaries of the Avenue Capital Group and managed by Middle River Power. Assets within the portfolio consist of eight gas-fired peaking plants and two gas-fired combined cycle power plants located near metropolitan centers across California.

First Citizens Bank today announced that its Middle Market Banking business provided a $60 million loan to Bahakel Communications to refinance existing debt and help finance future growth opportunities.

Bahakel Communications is a family owned-and-operated radio and television broadcast company headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with additional locations in South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and Colorado. 

Monroe Capital LLC (“Monroe”) today announced Gordon Saint-Denis has joined the firm as Managing Director, Head of Sports Finance. Gordon will be responsible for originating new investments across the capital structure for acquisition financing and recapitalizations for all major sports teams and venues in North America and Europe as well as other businesses in the sports ecosystem such as soccer, rugby, cycling, racing, golf, endurance races, e-sports and sports technology companies, merchandising, name, image and likeness (NILs), ticketing, and equipment companies.

The last two years have been a roller coaster for businesses. The early pandemic lockdowns initially wreaked havoc on small businesses; and then we saw what some consider to be a market overcorrection. Relief came in the form of PPP loans, Main Street Lending, and various other subsidies and programs. We look to the data – year over year commercial bankruptcy filings are down 31% and Chapter 11 filings are down 48%. Comparing 2021 to 2019, commercial bankruptcy filings are down 31% and Chapter 11 filings are down 33%.  

White Oak Global Advisors LLC (“White Oak”) announced today it has provided a $21.3 million senior credit facility to Omni Recycling (“Omni”), a leading single-stream recycling and waste disposal company. The transaction supported Salt Creek Capital’s (“Salt Creek”) acquisition of the company. Salt Creek is a San Francisco Bay Area-based private equity firm that partners with lower middle-market businesses to accelerate growth and improve operating efficiencies.

Cambridge Savings Bank (CSB), a full-service mutual bank with a customer-first approach and more than $5 billion in assets, today announced that its Commercial Lending team provided a $26 million financing package over the life of the relationship, including both a refinance of existing debt and new debt, to Modera Wealth Management, LLC (MWM) and individual members of its ownership group.

eCapital Corp. (“eCapital”), a leading alternative finance provider in North America and the U.K., has named Raphael Torres its new Managing Director of Staffing, a key division of its Commercial Finance group. Raphael will lead a specialized team of account management and operations professionals to support the unique financial needs of the staffing industry.