Tiffany Dufu will be a Keynote Speaker at SFNet’s virtual Women in Secured Finance conference July 29-30. For more information or to register, please click here. 

Tiffany Dufu is founder and CEO of The Cru. Their algorithm matches circles of women who collaborate to meet their personal and professional goals. She’s also the author of the bestselling book Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less. According to the foreword contributor Gloria Steinem, Drop the Ball is “important, path-breaking, intimate and brave."

Named to Fast Company’s League of Extraordinary Women, Tiffany has raised nearly $20 million toward the cause of women and girls. She was a launch team member to Lean In and was Chief Leadership Officer to Levo, one of the fastest growing millennial professional networks. Prior to that, Tiffany served as President of The White House Project, as a Major Gifts Officer at Simmons University, and as Associate Director of Development at Seattle Girls’ School.

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.

The new credit facility consists of an $80 million term loan, with a $30 million undrawn revolver. It replaces OneWater’s former $110 million facility with Goldman Sachs Specialty Lending, which included a $10 million undrawn revolver. In addition, the new credit facility will maintain more flexible covenants and terms. OneWater has elected to use excess cash to make a significant paydown of the principal amount in conjunction with the refinancing. 

Truist Bank acted as the sole administrative agent, collateral agent, swingline lender and issuing bank, while SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc. and Synovus Bank acted as joint lead-arrangers and joint bookrunners. 

This article analyzes the conflict between federal and state marijuana laws, and its impact on the inability of state-legal marijuana businesses to obtain traditional and fundamental types of banking services from federally insured banks. The article is divided into three parts: (i) an explanation of the conflict of state and federal marijuana laws; (ii) the effect of the conflicting laws on the decision of banking institutions to provide services to state-licensed marijuana businesses; and (iii) congressional and judicial attempts to resolve the conflict between state and federal marijuana laws.

Wingspire Capital Holdings is pleased to announce the completion of a $30 million senior secured loan to home furnishings retailer Arhaus, LLC to support the company’s daily operations and continued growth.

Wingspire Capital leadership was already familiar with Arhaus and its executive team, and welcomed the opportunity to support a growing and innovative retailer that has been redefining the home furnishing space for more than three decades.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) today announced that CIT Northbridge Credit, as advised by CIT Asset Management LLC, served as sole lead arranger on a $40 million senior secured credit facility for Europa Sports Products LLC.

Europa Sports Products is an industry-leading distributor of nutritional and sports supplements, sports drinks and accessories to mass market retailers, gyms, health food stores, specialty supplement retailers, sporting goods stores and many other outlets. Proceeds from the credit facility will be used for general corporate purposes and business development.

Antares announced today that it served as sole lead arranger and sole lender on $65 million in senior secured credit facilities to support the acquisition of Metal Era by GreyLion Capital.

Founded in 1980 in Waukesha, WI, Metal Era is a manufacturer of high-performance roofing products focused on metal edge and ventilation solutions for commercial, institutional and industrial buildings.

First Eagle Alternative Credit, LLC (“First Eagle” or the “firm” ) today announced that it has added asset-based lending solutions to its direct lending platform and appointed industry veterans Larry Klaff and Lisa Galeota to lead this initiative at the firm.

Klaff and Galeota join First Eagle from Gordon Brothers Finance Company, a majority-owned portfolio company of BlackRock Capital Investment Corporation, where they worked together and at its predecessor firm for over 13 years. During that time they sourced, originated and structured asset-based facilities valued at over $1 billion across a wide variety of industries. They will be based at First Eagle’s Boston office and will report directly to Chris Flynn, President of First Eagle Alternative Credit.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) today announced that it has named Chris Esposito as managing director in charge of its newly expanded Asset-Based Lending business.

In this role, Esposito is responsible for managing the Asset-Based Lending team, overseeing the national ABL business, building new client relationships, developing strategies to address new target markets and ensuring outstanding customer service and satisfaction.

White Oak Commercial Finance LLC (“White Oak”), an affiliate of White Oak Global Advisors, LLC, announced it provided an $8MM credit facility to a global automotive supplier specializing in design, engineering, and manufacturing of mechatronic systems and lightweight solutions.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston on Monday announced that the Main Street Lending Program is now fully operational, ready to purchase participations in eligible loans that are submitted to the program by registered lenders.  The Federal Reserve encourages lenders to begin submitting qualifying loans.

“This is an important milestone for the Main Street program,” said Eric Rosengren, president of the Boston Federal Reserve Bank, which is administering the program for the Federal Reserve System. “Given the pandemic’s shock to the economy, and its uncertain duration, support for businesses and their employees through bank lending is critical.”

This article analyzes the conflict between federal and state marijuana laws, and its impact on the inability of state-legal marijuana businesses to obtain traditional and fundamental types of banking services from federally insured banks. This article is divided into three parts: (i) an explanation of the conflict of state and federal marijuana laws; (ii) the effect of the conflicting laws on the decision of banking institutions to provide services to state-licensed marijuana businesses; and (iii) congressional and judicial attempts to resolve the conflict between state and federal marijuana laws.

This is the second article in a three-part installment about the banking dilemma for state-licensed marijuana businesses in the United States.

J.P. Morgan, Bank of Montreal and Goldman Sachs acted as Joint Bookrunners and Joint Lead Arrangers on the Facility. J.P. Morgan is the Administrative Agent on the Facility with Bank of Montreal and Goldman Sachs as Co-Syndication Agents. Additional details on the credit agreement may be found in the Form 8-K to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SFNet’s recent Virtual International Lending Conference offered insight on the effects of the COVID-19 crisis from geopolitical risk consultant, David Chmiel, co-founder/managing director, Global Torchlight; Marc Finer, director, Debt Advisory Group, KMPG LLP; Scott Fuller, director, Valuations, Gordon Brothers; Richard Hawkins, CEO, AtlanticRMS and Robert Horak, managing director, Lincoln International.  David Morse, partner, Otterbourg P.C. and Richard Kohn, principal, Goldberg Kohn Ltd. served as conference moderators.