There are two ways of obtaining business finance for MBOs. Firstly banks can do cash flow lends or an asset based lender can finance the assets within the business to provide the cash. The problem with banks is that during the recession they have had their fingers burnt with cash flow lends. Significant amounts of money are lent against the future profitability of the business. There can be potentially little security for the banks and it easy to see why the banks have been writing off significant amounts of bad debt. During 2009 banks were doing hardly any cash flow lends however during 2010 we can expect this to increase as the economic recovery start to take effect and the banks relax their cautious underwriting approach.
Structured lending or asset based lending takes a slightly different approach to providing loan facilities. Asset based lending usually starts with an invoice discounting facility which will release up to 90% of a businesses unpaid invoices. On the back of this it might be possible to obtain some form of revolving stocking facility typically at 50% of the value of the stock. An asset based lender will also advance an amount against the value of the assets probably around 70% of the forced sale value. Money is advanced typically with a 3 year pay back. Certain finance companies also provide Enterprise Finance Guarantee Funding usually at the amount equivalent to any directors contribution to the business.
The problem with both these two forms of financing is that you are relying on one finance provider and as such having eggs all in one basket will leave the funder with an awful lot of control over your business. Whilst it is not possible to split stocking finance away from the invoice discounting it is certainly possible to use a unrelated leasing company to provide funding against plant and machinery. Refinancing existing machinery is relatively easy to do provided there is some value in the kit.
