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  • Lenders Beware: Lender Liability
    The past few years have seen strong liquidity in the marketplace coupled with unprecedented government support of certain borrowers; increased competition for secured transactions among banks and non-banks; and surprisingly fewer distressed transactions during the pandemic than would have been anticipated. As a result, lenders have not had to focus as much on managing distressed credits and the potential pitfalls and risks that are associated with them. As a few recent cases discussed below show, assertions of lender liability may arise in various contexts to an unsuspecting lender. 
  • White Oak Commercial Finance Expands Asset-Based Lending and Lender Finance Team With New Managing Director of Underwriting

    White Oak Commercial Finance, LLC (“White Oak”), an affiliate of White Oak Global Advisors, LLC, announced that Wes Reagan has joined the Lender Finance Team as Managing Director of Underwriting. He will be responsible for underwriting, sourcing, structuring, and managing lender finance and ABL transactions as part of White Oak’s expanded lender finance and asset-based lending platform. Wes is based in Atlanta and will report to Neal Mulford, the Head of Underwriting and Portfolio Management.

     

  • David Morse photo What a Lender Needs to Know: Key Loan Document Terms in a Time of Crisis

    As circumstances are moving rapidly, companies and their lenders are dealing with unprecedented times.  While companies try to determine the full impact of the current economic tailspin on their businesses, lenders are looking to understand their risks and how they can respond to them.

    The credit agreement sets out the rules of the road for the relationship between a company and its lenders.  In the list of credit agreement provisions set out below we attempt to provide a map for the secured lender for navigating those rules, anticipating where there may be bumps or wrong turns and providing some guidance for where a lender may go in the credit agreement to determine its path when confronted with a borrower in distress.

  • Joseph Nemia, TD Bank Review and Forecast with Joseph Nemia, Executive Vice President - Head of Asset Based Lending at TD Bank

    Joseph Nemia looks back at 2019 and discusses what the secured finance industry can expect to see in 2020.

     

  • Charlie Perer Don’t hate the player, hate the game! The ABL game has changed.
    There have been many changes to the middle-market ABL industry over the past decade, but none more seminal than the dramatic shift in underwriting methodology to include enterprise value. But what about the assets?  Liquidating middle-market businesses with at least ABL net funds employed of $10+ million, and majority much higher, can be a difficult task. Specifically, when dealing with heavy-inventory situations as well as loans against non-working capital assets, such as M&E, RE and IP.  It constrains internal resources, has serious risk of not returning capital and is not the preferred path to go vs. running a sale process.  ABLs understand the risks and have had to adjust underwriting to factor in enterprise value as part of determining whether to get aggressive or even propose. 
  • Gannett Refinances $1B in Debt From Merger in Cost-saving Move, Arranged by Citigroup Global Markets

    Gannett, owner of USA TODAY and more than 260 other publications, said Monday that it has refinanced about $1 billion in debt in a move that will lower the company’s interest payments and save tens of millions of dollars a year.

    The new $1 billion loan, arranged by Citigroup Global Markets, will mature in February 2026, the company said, replacing debt that was due in November 2024. The deal is scheduled to close early next week.

    The move refinances more than half the loan that bankrolled the merger of GateHouse Media parent New Media Investment Group and the company previously known as Gannett in November 2019. The combined company took the name Gannett.

  • Michele Ocejo Results of SFNet’s Groundbreaking DEI Survey
    SFNet’s DEI Committee, in conjunction with Rutgers University and underwritten by the Secured Finance Foundation and Wells Fargo, released the results of the first-ever DEI Survey, which provides a comprehensive perspective on the current state of diversity, equity and inclusiveness among SFNet member companies.
  • Tenable Announces Closing of New Senior Secured Credit Facility
    Tenable®, Inc. (“Tenable”), the Cyber Exposure company, today announced it has entered into a new credit agreement, which is comprised of a $375.0 million senior secured term loan facility (the “Term Loan”) and $50.0 million senior secured revolving credit facility (the “Revolving Facility” and, together with the Term Loan, the “Credit Facility”).

    JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., Bank of America, N.A., and Barclays Bank PLC acted as joint lead arrangers and joint bookrunners for the Credit Facility.
  • JenniferCann_Headshot_150 Jennifer Cann Joins Bank of America Business Capital as SVP

    Bank of America Business Capital announced that Jennifer Cann has joined as senior vice president and head of the Retail Finance Group Portfolio. Based in Boston, Jenn manages the ABL Retail Portfolio team responsible for credit, monitoring and strategic development. 

     
  • Newtek Business Services Corp. Signs Agreement to Acquire National Bank of New York City
    Newtek Business Services Corp., (Nasdaq: NEWT), an internally managed business development company (“BDC”), today announced that it entered into an agreement to acquire National Bank of New York City (“NBNYC” or the “Bank”), a nationally chartered bank with approximately $204 million in total assets and $36.5 million in tier 1 capital (each as of June 30, 2021; does not reflect the impact of pre-closing dividends to selling NBNYC shareholders) for $20 million in cash (the “Acquisition”). 
  • Rob Meyers photo Get to (Really) Know Rob Meyers

    The following interview is a transcript from SFNet YoPro Committee member Avi Levine interviewing Rob Meyers, president, CCO & managing member of Republic Business Credit, in April 2020. Rob previously served as chair of SFNet's National Young Professionals Committee and spearheaded the YoPro Annual Leadership Summit, now in its third year. We hope you enjoy getting to know the industry’s young professionals.


  • A New Multinational Financing Frontier? Recent US Tax Guidance Opens New Avenues of Foreign Credit Support for Certain US Borrowings at an Uncertain Cost
    As lenders, borrowers and their advisors are well aware, the enactment of what is informally referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “TCJA”) introduced fundamental changes to U.S. tax law that immediately impacted the structuring, terms and implications of financing arrangements. Although the TCJA’s initial effects were significant, the prospect of future material changes also existed in the form of implementing guidance. True to that promise, recently finalized regulations (the “Regulations”) promulgated under Section 956 may have the most dramatic effect yet on financing arrangements involving multinational companies.
     
  • Great Rock Capital Expands Management Team, Adds Chief Risk Officer

    Great Rock Capital, an asset-focused commercial finance company specializing in middle market lending, today announced Kathleen Auda has joined the firm as Chief Risk Officer. Auda will be responsible for overseeing both the underwriting and portfolio management teams and will report to Stuart Armstrong, CEO and CIO.

     

     

  • Amerisource Closes $17,000,000 Credit Facility for Industrial Sand and Construction Aggregate Firm
    Amerisource Business Capital announced the closing and funding of a $17,000,000 senior credit facility for an Iowa-based sand and construction aggregate firm.  The proceeds were used to continue the expansion of their business lines and support their ongoing working capital needs.
  • Nassau Financial Group Forms Nassau Global Credit
    Nassau Financial Group, L.P. (“Nassau”) today announced the formation of Nassau Global Credit (“NGC”), which combines Angel Island Capital Management (“AIC”) and Nassau Corporate Credit (“NCC”). NGC will be a subsidiary of Nassau’s asset management segment, Nassau Asset Management, and will be led by Alexander Dias as Chief Executive Officer and Jonathan Insull as Chief Investment Officer.
  • Mark Hafner, Celtic Capital You Can Bend Credit Criteria Only So Far Before Something Breaks

    The recession of 2008-2009 brought many lessons to the lending community; and the small independent finance companies were no exception. When looking back at that period, many of the lessons that we should all remember occurred in 2005-2007, during the lead up to the recession.

    If you’ll recall, the economy was strong and business was booming. For small independent finance companies (that typically run counter-cyclical), new business was harder to come by and highly competitive. As is often the case, this led to aggressive structures and lower pricing, a bad combination.

  • Huntington Business Credit Closes $250 Million Credit Facility with Concordance Healthcare Solutions, LLC
    Huntington Business Credit acting as administrative agent and joint lead arranger announced it closed a new $250,000,000 credit facility with Concordance Healthcare Solutions, LLC on December 28, 2020.  Proceeds of the facility were used to refinance existing indebtedness and to provide ongoing working capital growth financing.      
  • Governor Cuomo Approves New York State Disclosure Law…Compliance Requirements to be Established in Rulemaking
    In a Memorandum filed with Senate Bill SB-5470-B, New York State Governor, Andrew Cuomo acknowledged SFNet’s and other’s opposition to the measure noting that “there is no strong consensus as to the best approach in how to compare various products” and stating, “I have secured an agreement with the legislature to make certain technical changes to this bill to better provide clarity…”. The new statute requires non-regulated commercial lenders, including asset-based lenders and factors, that propose to lend $2 million (pending approval by the legislature the threshold is likely to be at least $2 million) or less to New York-based borrowers to make certain uniform disclosures in their proposals including an “estimated” Annual Percentage Rate.
  • MidCap Financial Announces Acquisition of PNC Bank's Franchise Finance Business

    MIDCAP FINANCIAL today announced that it has successfully closed the acquisition of substantially all of PNC Bank's Franchise Finance loan portfolio. In conjunction with the acquisition, six members of the Franchise Finance business have joined MidCap Financial including Bernard Lajeunesse, former Senior Vice President and General Manager of PNC Franchise Finance, who will be leading the new initiative.

  • SFNet Announces Plans for New Executive Level Committees

    At a meeting of its Executive Committee in June, SFNet put forward a plan to establish two new standing committees. The first would seek to understand and address issues of diversity, equality and inclusion as they affect the SFNet Community. The second would focus on the proliferation of international secured finance. The formation of the new committees, which would hold seats on SFNet’s Executive Committee, will be presented for approval to SFNet Member Directors along with the overall recommended slate of 2021 Fiscal Year Executive and Management Committee candidates later this month.

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