The whole universe
Banks, private credit, asset-based lenders,
and specialists, run in parallel. Incumbency is
not a term sheet.
Debt & Refinancing
Debt advisory for companies
and owners who want the
market's terms, not their bank's.
Raise or refinance across the whole lender universe: acquisition
finance, working capital, and the structures between, run by one firm.
By introduction. In confidence.
Most companies take the loan
their bank offers.
The market usually had a better one, and the
difference is a process.
We size the requirement, prepare the company, run the lender universe in competition, and negotiate the terms you will actually live with: covenants, security, and flexibility, not just the rate.
The mandate suits profitable companies refinancing, acquiring, or funding growth, and owners raising against what they have built.
The facility takes several forms.
The refinancing
A maturity approaching, or a market that has moved since you last priced. Either is reason enough to test the book.
Acquisition finance
Debt structured around the deal and the combined cash flows, arranged alongside the transaction rather than after it.
The dividend recapitalisation
Debt that funds a distribution to owners. Where liquidity is the objective, that mandate runs at /recap, and we will route you honestly.
Working capital & growth facilities
Headroom for the plan, the season, or the contract, sized before it is needed.
The early conversation
Pressure building, covenants tightening, options narrowing. Refinance while it is a choice; the same situation a year later
is a different page of this site.
The process.
Six phases, the same discipline every time.
Most facilities run two to five months from the first conversation to funding.
I
Screening
The conversation first, under NDA if you prefer. The balance sheet,
the requirement, and whether debt is the right instrument. If equity or
patience serves better, we say so.
II
The requirement
Size, tenor, structure, and covenant strategy settled before any
lender hears the name. The terms you ask for shape the terms you
get.
III
Preparation
The lender pack built to credit-committee standard: numbers a credit officer can approve without a second meeting.
IV
Market
The universe run in competition: banks, private credit, asset-based
lenders, and specialists, approached in parallel so the terms are set
by the market, not by incumbency.
V
Terms & covenants
Rate is the visible term; covenants, security, and flexibility are the
ones you live with. All of it negotiated whole, with the downside years
in mind.
VI
Close & funding
Documentation run to timetable, conditions cleared early, funds
drawn when you planned to draw them.
Refinance from strength. The company that tests the market two
years before maturity sets the terms; the company
that starts six months out accepts them.
The staircase.
Every instrument trades cost against flexibility.
Knowing where you stand on the stairs is half the negotiation.
Senior debt
Unitranche
Mezzanine
Preferred
& structured
cheaper,
tighter
dearer,
looser
Down the stairs: more cost, more flexibility, less security given.
Most companies belong on a step they were never offered.
The bank sells the top step because the bank owns the top step. The mandate is
finding the step the balance sheet actually
belongs on, then making the market compete for it.
Why Companies Engage Us
Credit-committee preparation
The pack built to the standard a credit
officer approves without a second meeting.
Speed is a preparation outcome, not a favour.
Covenants, negotiated
Rate is the headline; covenants are the years that follow. We negotiate the terms you live with as hard as the ones you announce.
One firm, end to end
Sizing through funding, carried by the same people, alongside your existing advisors.
Cross-border, natively
The borrower in one jurisdiction, the
security in a second, the lender in a third.
Documentation coordinated across
all of them.
On the borrower's side
We act for the company, never for the lenders. Terms set out in the Engagement Agreement before work begins.
The instruments, and what they cost you.
Instrument
What it funds
What it costs you
Senior debt
What it funds
Refinancing, acquisitions, general corporate
What it costs you
The lowest rate, the tightest covenants, the most security
Unitranche
What it funds
Speed and simplicity in one facility
What it costs you
A blended rate for one document and one lender to manage
Asset-based
What it funds
Working capital against receivables, stock, plant
What it costs you
Discipline on the assets; capacity that grows as you do
Mezzanine
What it funds
The gap between senior capacity and the need
What it costs you
A higher coupon for patience and headroom
Preferred & structured
What it funds
Equity-shaped needs without full dilution
What it costs you
The most conditions per dollar; priced with open eyes
Qualitative by design. Pricing and covenant packages are market facts on the
day, and the market phase exists to establish them in competition, not
from a table.
The lender universe: banks / private credit funds / asset-based lenders /
specialty & situational capital
What we act on.
The firm acts for profitable companies and their owners on facilities that the cash flows can
carry comfortably: refinancings, acquisition finance, and growth and working capital structures.
Typically founder-held or family-held, typically with a cross-border dimension in the group or the security.
We act for the borrower, never for the lenders. Terms are set out plainly in the Engagement Agreement before any work begins.
Asked before most mandates.
Bank or private credit?
Banks are cheaper and tighter; private credit is dearer and more
flexible. The right answer depends on what the next three years ask
of the balance sheet, and running both in parallel is how you find
out what each is really worth.
Which covenants matter?
The ones that bind in an ordinary bad year: leverage, cover, and the
definitions underneath them. A covenant package is a description
of your worst permitted year, and we negotiate it as such.
How much can we borrow?
What the cash flows can carry with room to breathe, which is
usually less than the most aggressive term sheet and more than
your bank volunteered. The requirement phase puts a defensible
number on it.
Will running a process upset our bank?
No. Banks respect a professionally run process, and incumbents
sharpen their own terms inside one. The relationship survives; the
mispricing does not.
How long does it take?
Two to five months from first conversation to funding, driven mostly
by preparation. A credit-ready pack moves through committees in
weeks; an unprepared one waits in queues.
What does it cost?
The commercial terms are set out plainly in the Engagement
Agreement before any work begins, with the substance of our fee
settled at funding. There are no surprises in our paperwork. You
should expect none in the facility's.
No public references.
The firm does not name clients, counterparties, or terms.
Not in marketing, not in conversation, not after the fact. The borrowers best placed to vouch for the work are the reason we will not ask them to. If discretion matters while you refinance, it should matter to the firm that takes your book to market.
Adjacent to this mandate.
Better terms exist.
They require a process.
Every mandate begins with a conversation. Outline the balance
sheet and the requirement in confidence. If we are the right firm for
it, we will say how we would run the market. If we are not, we will
say that too. Request an Introduction, in confidence. No obligation.
An NDA is available before any detail is shared.