TSL Feature Articles

Borrowers face an uphill battle when conducting an internet search for capital. Lee Haskin of Crossroads Financial discusses the misinformation out there and offers clarifications concerning certain types of finance products.

A Moritt Hock & Hamroff partner discusses the potential legal implications for companies that are not committed to diversity and inclusion as increasing shareholder pressures and legal complaints mount.

In 2010, only 19 women served on the SFNet Board of Directors, today there are 46. We’ve doubled the representation of women on the Executive Committee from three to six. Here, we speak with the six women who currently sit on SFNet’s Executive and Management Committees.

What’s in fashion for factoring this coming spring? Quite a bit. This year’s trends show what we’ve all been keeping under wraps for the last two years, and we’ll be seeing some definite changes.

Robert Grbic has more than 30 years of commercial lending experience. He has been with the company and its predecessor since 2005, previously serving as senior executive vice president and chief credit officer where he was involved in creating a hands-on, best-practices credit culture, as well as helping the Company expand its client portfolio.

Before that, Grbic was managing director at MorrisAnderson & Associates ltd., a turnaround-consulting firm. He also co-founded MetSource Capital, LLC, a restructuring and corporate finance firm, working primarily with small- and medium-sized companies. In addition, Grbic has also served at GMAC Commercial Credit, LLC, BNY Financial Corp and Bankers Trust. He has served as an instructor for the Finance, Tax and Law Department at the NYU School of Continuing Education. Grbic holds master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Business Administration from Pace University.

TSL’s editor-in-chief sat down with several members of the SFNet Factoring Committee to review the current landscape in early 2022. Participants include Carol Apicella, senior vice president, BankFinancial Government Finance; Tina Capobianco, senior vice president, J D Factors Corporation; Dan Karas, executive vice president, Allied Affiliated Funding; Kevin Laborde, president, Cash Flow Resources; and Paul Schuldiner, executive vice president & chief lending officer, Rosenthal & Rosenthal, Inc.

In this installment of our series of executive interviews, Charlie Perer sits with Tim Knight (pictured) to hear his perspective on executive development, advice for lenders, the growth in the non-bank market, what every executive should be thinking about, the importance of diversity and lessons learned, among other things.

Knight is the vice president and senior managing partner with ThinkingAhead where he is responsible for operations, training and recruiting for the firm. He also leads the partner group that heads up the firm’s Commercial Banking and Commercial Finance, Legal, Life Sciences and Security/Physical infrastructure search practices.

Peter York is managing director and head of the Asset Based Lending (ABL) practice for the Corporate & Investment Bank of J.P. Morgan. He has been with J.P. Morgan for over 17 years and has more than 27 years of secured ABL experience. York’s strengths include large multibank syndicated financing, cross-border structuring, leveraged buyout finance, and bankruptcy and debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing.

Some turnaround and M&A leaders are predicting the second quarter of 2022 could be when the “default boom” hits. Asset-based lenders, factors, and other secured lenders will need to be at the ready to handle turnaround deals.

As VC markets cool, more cash-starved companies are turning to venture lending to tide them over until a new equity round is possible. Lenders are taking note—but it may not be the lenders one would expect.  

In this Q&A with Jennifer Post, managing partner of Thompson Coburn LLP’s Los Angeles office, she discusses if recession fears are slowing down equity markets, if start-ups are depending more on risky “uncommon players” for venture capital and other critical challenges startups face. 

Infinity ABL Services, LLC
1121 Mason Ave.
Drexel Hill, PA 19026-2509
https://www.infinityabl.com

Infinity ABL provides field exam services for banks and other commercial finance institutions. Infinity ABL, created in February 2021, has three partners with extensive ABL knowledge.

The Women in Secured Finance e-newsletter's feature interview for this issue is with Melissa Mok, director of asset-based lending for Truist Securities. Mok joined Truist Securities in 2014.  Located in Texas, she is responsible for ABL originations of mid- and large-cap companies and is currently focused on the Financial Services, Energy and Industrial Services. TMT and TME industry verticals.

SFNet's International Lending Conference (ILC) brings together some of the most interesting players on the international lending scene for discussions and insights into what lies ahead. This year’s Conference will be held at DLA Piper Offices, May 9-11, 2023.

“War, energy crisis, high inflation, synchronized interest rate hikes and stagnation in China, should have pushed the European economy in a deep recession,” said economist and journalist, Dr. Mathijs Bouman, who will kick off the Conference. “But, the old continent is more resilient than many feared and the downturn could turn out to be shallow and short-lived. But new challenges lay ahead for European industries: the structurally tight labor market, trade and investment wars and fragmentation of the world economy and the rising costs of climate policy.” 

Last year was not the type of “cascade” we thought it would be – at all – as 2022 turned out to be more characterized by a surge of rising rate hikes and new concerns, versus a wave of new deals. Undeterred, we’re back this year to so see what could be infashion for factoring in 2023.

First on our list, the hot new color for this year – Viva Magenta!

Last Fall, Webster Bank announced that Abby Parsonnet was named executive managing director, head of Asset Based Lending (ABL) for Webster Bank. In her role, she oversees the nationwide Asset-Based Lending and Commercial Services teams at Webster, which also includes staffing solutions and factoring. She reports to Chris Motl, president of Commercial Banking.

As head of ABL, Parsonnet is responsible for continuing Webster’s strong tradition of excellence in delivering customized working capital solutions to middle- market clients and sponsors.  She will lead a team of bankers based in strategic markets nationwide.

Here, Abby discusses her career, goals in her new role, how the merger with Sterling National Bank helped to expand Webster’s offerings, particularly in ABL and factoring, and more.

In the coming months, be on the lookout for an increase in seller-financed mergers and acquisitions activity. 

For the last several years, the small and midsized business segment was experiencing increasing purchase price multiples fueled by low interest rates and the available credit made possible by banks’ confidence in a robust economy. Owners of solid businesses – motivated by a desire to close deals before anticipated possible changes in the current tax code – staged auctions and entertained multiple competing all-cash offers. Buyers took advantage of easy credit and low rates to deploy a combination of debt and equity, with debt on the portion of a deal supported by commercial real estate often exceeding 70%.