Banks Getting Tought On Line Of Credit Provisions

Working with clients, talking with bankers and everyone in between – the themes are all the same. Financings are getting done but deals need to be airtight. The WSJ journal reported an article about KKR’s buyout of Oriental brewing. It notes two things that are common and recurring themes: 1) Banks are providing capital at lower leverage multiples (which means the amount of debt relative to cash flow is down) and 2) only good or ‘airtight’ deals are getting done.
What’s interesting not a good opportunity for one bank may be ‘airtight’ for another. As an example, I’ve been told a large well known bank is actively looking to shed its loan portfolio of clients currently holding under $40 million in outstanding loans. That’s a case where one’s bank’s trash is another bank’s ‘treasure’.

The trick is to figure out which financial institutions really desire your company’s business (or ‘treasure.’)

This requires growing businesses, even if they’ve stubbed their toe, to understand all their financing options and solicit numerous institutions and really ‘play the numbers’. This has always been the best process to getting new financing because it creates competition which then gets better pricing and terms. Now its often the only way of getting new financing in our current markets.

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