Articles

As head of acquisitions, Bruce Sim is responsible for sourcing commercial finance platform companies and portfolios across North America, and the UK.

Sim has more than three decades of experience in commercial finance, banking, and capital markets. Prior to joining eCapital, he served as senior director of business development at ExWorks Capital, and senior managing director for Glass Ratner Advisory & Capital Group. His banking experience includes executive roles as Head of Capital Markets and Wealth Management at RBC (Caribbean) Ltd, a subsidiary of Royal Bank of Canada; Head of Wells Fargo Global Banking in Miami; and Southeast Region Manager for asset-based lending at Wells Fargo. Sim earned his Bachelor of Science (Mathematics) from the University of Toronto and a Master of Business Administration from York University in Canada.

FGI Worldwide LLC (“FGI”) is delighted to announce the completion of a $40MM ABL facility for ScanSource’s former business in Europe. The facility was used, in part, to fund a portion of the acquisition by a Charlotte-based family office and to support the company’s future working capital requirements. The new Company will be headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. They are a leading global provider of technology products and solutions. 

Brooke Iley counsels and defends domestic and foreign corporations in all areas of employment and labor law compliance and litigation, including wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment, wage and hour class and collective actions, trade secret disputes and data protection, and alleged fiduciary breaches. She represents clients in negotiations, litigations, and arbitrations nationally in these areas.

Capstone Headwaters (“Capstone”), a leading middle market investment banking firm, announced it has completed the acquisition of Amherst Consulting LLC (“Amherst”) as part of a continued plan to grow the company’s Financial Advisory Services (“FAS”) group.

The announcement marks the latest development in a multiphase strategy Capstone unveiled this past December with the addition of several new FAS professionals based in various locations, including Denver and Canada. The newly acquired Amherst team will be led by Sheldon Stone and Scott Eisenberg who are joining Capstone’s FAS Group as Managing Directors and will continue to be based in Michigan.

Monroe Credit Advisors (“Monroe Credit”) announced that Marc Pressler has joined the firm as a Managing Director in its Chicago office. Marc will be responsible for originating middle market debt and lease transactions for the firm.

Marc has over 30 years of experience in commercial banking and structured finance. Prior to Monroe Credit, Marc was the Commercial Banking Segment Leader at Associated Bank, where he was responsible for leading the origination, underwriting and portfolio management teams in the Southeast Wisconsin region. 

While the PPP loans have provided necessary working capital for many businesses to survive the economic impacts of Covid-19, as those funds have been used and payment deferrals have expired, companies are looking to enter into M&A transactions. When a company has a PPP loan the M&A process is further complicated for the company and its lender.

On October 2, 2020 the SBA issued a Procedural Notice to provide guidance on the notification and consent requirements for changes in ownership of companies with PPP loans. The usual SBA 7(a) loan requirements are to obtain consent of the SBA prior to a lender approving a change in ownership. This October 2 guidance was meant to clarify what the SBA would expect specifically related to PPP loans and change of ownership.

As pandemic impacts continue to mitigate, many financial institutions are now reducing their risk forecast for loan defaults. The upbeat sentiments are welcome but the times remain unprecedented, and uncertainty remains on what lies ahead.

Today, more than ever, lenders are focused on minimizing their risks when entering a financial transaction.

Two key components in the lenders’ due diligence process when entering a transaction are conducting consensual and non-consensual lien searches and filing a UCC1 against the borrower.

CELEBRATION, FL (December 14, 2022) – AmeriFactors Financial Group, LLC, provided $60,000,000 in accounts receivable financing to a communications contractor to assist their business through a heavy growth stage. The client will be building out the infrastructure for a large telecom company. Along with increasing their available capital, they will have the advantage of AmeriFactors accounts receivable management services.

LSQ, a leading provider of technology-driven working capital solutions, announced that the company originated a $7.5 million AR facility, including a $3.1 million payoff to the first position lender, for a resurging marketing services firm.

Demand for the firm’s services is normalizing following a COVID-related revenue slump in 2020. It will now have sufficient capital to fulfill a growing number of orders and 2021 business development goals via this new, larger facility with LSQ.

Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), one of the world's leading financial groups, today announced that it has hired Rajesh "Raj" Kapadia as International Head of Capital Markets. Mr. Kapadia will be responsible for the oversight, operation, and growth of MUFG's Capital Markets business globally, including debt and equity capital markets and leveraged finance.

The Federal Paycheck Protection Program loan funds did buy many struggling businesses time to weather the proverbial economic storm. Plus, secured lenders, not surprisingly, found it much more advantageous to work with borrowers and extend liquidity than deal with a bankrupt business. The idea was simply that the pandemic couldn’t last forever and that the economy, as it is now, does appear to be on the mend.

Asset-based lenders were aware of the problems going into the pandemic. Not surprisingly, brick and mortar retailers, already facing significant financial stress before the shutdown, did take the brunt of the pandemic and many were forced to shutter stores, says Dan Karas, executive vice president of Allied Affiliated Funding, a division of Axiom Bank, N.A. Many large retailer liquidations dominated 2020, including J.C. Penney and Pier 1. The silver lining for lenders, as it turns out, is that liquidations were generally not the order of the day for most businesses, he adds. According to data from Epiq, commercial Chapter 11 filings grew year-over-year, up 29% in 2020 compared to 2019.

Siena Lending Group LLC (“Siena”) announces the completion of a $25 million asset-based revolving line of credit for Vault Pressure Control LLC (“Vault Pressure Control”). The facility was provided in conjunction with Pelican Energy Partners to fund the acquisition as well as for working capital needs to support future growth.

Vault Pressure Control, based in Houston, Texas, was formerly the Surface Pressure Control Flow business unit of the Oilfield Equipment segment of Baker Hughes.  The newly independent company is wholly focused on providing outstanding customer service and world-class products to pressure control customers in the US, Canada, Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Trinidad & Tobago markets.

In February, Otterbourg P.C. announced that Valerie S. Mason and Nneoma A. Maduike had been named co-chairs of the firm’s Lender Finance Practice Group. Otterbourg’s experienced Lender Finance team advises and represents the largest U.S. and global institutional lenders and regional banks, as lenders and mature lenders, sponsors supported companies, and strategics, ranging from startups to mature traditional lenders and funds, merchant cash advance companies, asset-based lenders, factors and fintech lenders, as borrowers, in “lender to lender” secured revolving credit and term loan facilities.