Wingspire Capital Holdings LLC (“Wingspire Capital”) announced an agreement to acquire Liberty Commercial Finance LLC (“Liberty”). Wingspire Capital is a portfolio company of Owl Rock Capital Corporation, a publicly traded business development company that is externally-managed by an indirect subsidiary of Blue Owl Capital Inc.

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.