Articles

Denise Albanese of Cost Reduction Solutions discusses the origin of her firm that was started by her husband, Michael F. Albanese, CPA, as a sole practitioner field examiner. 

Denise also discusses the new procedures implemented when the Covid-19 crisis began, what field exams in the future may look like and what makes a business successful. 

During the Secured Finance Network’s webinar on the healthcare finance sector, streamed May 15, Allen Wilen of EisnerAmper, described a future scenario affected by human longevity, geographic location and how COVID-19 affected you. New trends relevant to finance executives are accelerating out of necessity because of the sudden impact of the coronavirus pandemic and the weaknesses it illuminated.

FSW Funding, a Phoenix-based company specializing in financing solutions for small to mid-size businesses, recently hired Griffin Augustniak as a Portfolio Analyst and Cynthia Klein as a Business Development Officer. Both help support FSW’s continued growth and expansion in the Midwest and East. Augustniak is based in Chicago, Illinois and Klein is based in Jacksonville, Florida.

Axiom Bank, N.A., a Maitland-based, leading community bank, recently expanded its factoring and asset-based lending division with the hiring of Mark J. Simshauser as SVP of Allied Affiliated Funding.

Based on Long Island, NY, Simshauser will be responsible for expanding Allied and Axiom’s existing commercial portfolio by working with business owners and centers of influence throughout the Northeast to find solutions that meet their individual financial needs. 

I was a lender for over 40 years and have been a member of SFNet for most of that time.   I have attended many conferences over the years.  I especially enjoy the SFNet Annual Convention.   A different city every year, an opportunity to catch up with all the people I know in the industry, but haven’t seen in a while, and an opportunity to meet lots of new people that I didn’t know or only knew by telephone or e-mail.   When I was a lender, our syndications group would arrange a lot of meetings with existing and potential new partners and very often was able to pitch new deals.   This was a time to solidify relationships, expand your professional and personal network and maybe get some business done.  For years, I never came home from the convention without at least one new potential deal to review.   And, of course, there were always exceptional keynote speakers and terrific panels to attend as well. 

We all want to return to normal, or the new normal, as quickly as possible.  The question businesses and their stakeholders need to ask themselves is what does normal mean and how can the return be funded.

For most companies, their working capital has been depleted during the shutdown as they struggled to pay employees and keep vendors satisfied, while dealing with impacts to sales and accounts receivable.

Mr. Levy will be responsible for expanding the acquisition team and strategy, with a focus on continuing to source and complete industrial redevelopment transactions throughout North America within Hilco’s real estate redevelopment operating company. Mr. Levy brings an impressive 28-year track record of having delivered and managed over 40 Million Square Feet of acquired real estate totaling $2.5 Billion in assets under management spanning over 5,000 Acres.

CIT Group Inc. (NYSE: CIT) today announced that its Healthcare Finance business served as sole lead arranger of senior debt financing aggregating $48 million for the acquisition of a portfolio of medical office buildings.

The borrower is a joint venture between Kayne Anderson Real Estate and Remedy Medical Properties. The portfolio properties are located in four states and collectively total more than 189,000 square feet. 

FOCUS

If you seek tranquility, do less. Or (more accurately) do what’s essential. Do less, better. Because most of what we do or say is not essential

  -- Marcus Aurelius

Lenders (and most others) struggle with a particular problem almost every day: how to prioritize deals they can get done versus those they can’t. Prioritization affects all of us, but how practically can we focus on what is essential? We are living beings and our most important asset is time, so let’s use it wisely. But how do we know if we are using it sensibly?  Seneca similarly stated,

It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it

Granted, he was referencing our lives and not lending, but the lesson still applies. What is essential in lending?  To be successful in lending one only to needs consider duration – safety – return and contingencies (perhaps a subset of safety).

Armstrong Teasdale partners provide lenders with up-to-date information on the complexities of lending to the legalized marijuana industry.

Perhaps the most frequently asked question by growth-oriented lenders is “How and when can we lend into the rapidly growing and already major industry of legalized marijuana?”

The answer is: “It is not so simple.”

As we make it to week seven of the coronavirus pandemic, it is hard not to reflect on this incredible period in history. The pandemic and the associated COVID-19 virus are an enigma that is bringing the world economy seemingly to its knees. First the virus was dismissed by the Western world as a mere flu-like illness originating in Asia, then an epidemic that might disrupt the Chinese economy, then an Italian problem, a cruise ship issue, a Washington state complication, and a New York dilemma. Now, it has finally been recognized for the major world concern that it is. The coronavirus has erupted into a global pandemic with over three million cases that will likely have a global and possibly U.S. pandemic-related death toll second only to the Spanish flu of 1918. We already know that this pandemic will have the greatest impact on the global economy since perhaps the bubonic plague of 1342, also known as the Black Death.

Wingspire Capital Holdings (“Wingspire”) today announced that it has provided a $36.5 million senior secured loan to R.W. Sidley (“RWS”). Loan proceeds were used to refinance its existing bank facility, while providing a more patient and flexible capital structure to help management achieve its strategic growth initiatives.

Heritage Global Inc. (OTCQB: HGBL, CSE: HGP) (“Heritage Global,” “HGI” or “the Company”), a diversified financial services company providing asset-based acquisition, disposition, valuation, and lending services, today announced the launch of Heritage Global Capital, a new platform to provide specialty financing solutions to small- and medium-sized investors in charged-off and nonperforming asset portfolios and other asset-based classes.