Articles

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.

John DePledge, head of Asset Based Lending at Bank Leumi USA, discusses his tenure as SFNet president and COVID’s impact on plans.

Citizens announced today that it has provided a new $30 million asset-based revolving line of credit to Cranston, R.I. based Ross-Simons, a leader in direct-to-consumer sales, specializing in offering unique and proprietary fine jewelry designs alongside a deep selection of classics such as diamond tennis bracelets and gold necklaces. Citizens is the Administrative Agent, Sole Lead Arranger and Sole Bookrunner.

Ross-Simons reaches consumers through a company-operated website, catalog, and its flagship retail store in Warwick, R.I.  The company offers a wide selection of fine jewelry across a range of price points and is known for mixing materials and colors in unexpected combinations. The company was acquired earlier this month by Nonantum Capital Partners.

Succession planning is not a contingency plan. It is a core human resources function that builds and sustains shareholder value.

From the third quarter Phoenix Management “Lending Climate in America” survey results reveal COVID-19 will continue to have a major effect on U.S. performance throughout 2020.

While lenders seem to believe COVID-19 will have a major effect on the U.S. performance until a vaccine is widely available, the outlook for the U.S. economy in the near and long-term is more favorable in Q3 2020 than in the previous quarter predictions. The near-term grade point average (GPA) increased 54 percentage points to 1.72 from the Q2 2020 GPA of 1.18. The projected outlook for the U.S. economy in the long-term increased slightly (by 36 percentage points) to 2.60 from the previous quarter’s results of 2.24.

Dianne Wagman is a senior vice president, senior director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Executive Talent Acquisition for Santander US.   

Private credit investment manager WhiteHawk Capital Partners, LP (“WhiteHawk”) launched in 2020 with a focus on providing asset-based financing solutions to primarily middle market companies in need of liquidity and growth capital.

WhiteHawk is led by Managing Partners John Ahn, Robert Louzan and Harry Chung, formerly of Great American Capital Partners, also known as GACP, a division of B. Riley Financial. The Managing Partners were joined by their 10-member investment team, ensuring continuity of the firm’s demonstrated investment process.

The coronavirus-triggered downturn is pushing default rates higher and is also affecting the bankruptcy procedures used to address such credit defaults, according to Fitch Ratings. Several recent debtors have had their bankruptcy cases derailed as ability to access exit financing markets has been compromised. Similarly, decreased lender appetite for equitized debt as well as lack of third party interest in certain distressed assets has also disrupted the streamlined trend of pre-coronavirus Chapter 11s. Lender fears with respect to DIP facilities as well as an increased frequency of liquidation outcomes will likely further impede the goal of preserving value in U.S. bankruptcies during the crisis. Given that recoveries are tied to distributable value, a prolonged pandemic may contribute to lower creditor recoveries for debtors with disrupted processes.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) today announced that David Harnisch will join the company as president of Commercial Finance, effective Sept. 23, 2019. Harnisch will succeed the current president of Commercial Finance Jim Hudak who has elected to retire following a 20-year career at CIT, effective Sept. 3, 2019.

The Post-COVID New Normal For Store Closing and Strategic Sale Events. Reflections by SB360’s Scott Bernstein.

“Why aren’t you in the water?  Nobody’s going in.  Please… get in the water.”  Those pleading words uttered in the 1975 blockbuster movie “Jaws” were part of an ill-fated effort by Mayor Larry Vaughn to save his fictional sleepy beach town from financial ruin.  Those of us who saw the movie or have binged watched Shark Week re-runs know how that worked out for the reluctant residents of Amity.

In this installment of our series of executive interviews, Charlie Perer sits with Tim Stute to understand his views on the ABL industry, consolidation, new trends including specialization and state of the M&A market, among other things.

A designer of high-end handbags and accessories lost coverage on some of their retail customer accounts due to COVID-related challenges. When their existing bank was unable to cover those customers and restricted their borrowing capacity, the client reached out to Rosenthal.

When one of the world’s largest manufacturers of premium textiles and bedding was looking to establish a U.S. entity to sell to retailers, the company sought out a factor to provide the necessary credit coverage it needed to move forward. Unfamiliar with factoring and given the current state of the retail environment, the company turned to Rosenthal because of the firm’s deep experience in the textile and retail space.

I hope you had a safe and peaceful weekend as many of us celebrated the Passover and Easter holidays and found some respite from the crisis in our friends, families and communities.  Events continue to unfold at a rapid pace, and I’d like to bring you up to speed on what our association is doing to analyze and share information and influence outcomes to support our collective interests.  Our priority remains to attend to the well-being of our SFNet community and to fulfill our mission of putting capital to work. 

On the legislative and regulatory front, we have focused our Advocacy resources on three imperatives.

• Leveraging the CARES Act. Last week an additional $250B was pledged to the already oversubscribed Paycheck Protection Program. SFNet and our volunteers, in alignment with the AFA, ELFA, ASEA and other trade associations, are petitioning legislators to simplify execution challenges, modify affiliation rules and extend eligibility to financial services companies under PPP. Our positions on these matters can be found at SFNet.com.