Services

Debt advisory across the entire capital structure.

We run the process for companies, sponsors and developers: from first analysis through structuring to financial close. Competition among lenders achieves terms that are rarely attainable in a one-to-one negotiation with your relationship bank.

Capital Raising

We run the process from the structuring proposal through the lender outreach to financial close. Banks, debt funds and institutional lenders are approached within the same window, and we keep their offers comparable. Pricing, tenors and covenants are negotiated together; they decide how much room you have in the years after close.

  • Structure debt capacity and downside buffer analysed, then tranching, tenors, security package and a covenant architecture with headroom
  • Project finance supply and offtake agreements, permitting status and contract chain tested for bankability
  • Materials financing memorandum, lender presentation, financial model with sensitivities
  • Lenders curated longlist, structured outreach, management of queries and the credit process
  • Due diligence selecting the technical and commercial advisers, steering their work and the Q&A with lenders and bidders
  • Term sheets offers on a comparable basis, negotiation of pricing, covenants and security
  • Documentation steering counsel and the conditions precedent through to financial close

Financing strategy & lender education

Not every financing question starts with a placement mandate. We develop financing concepts for plans that are still ahead of a process and assess the courses of action to the point of decision. Ahead of a sale process we take the lenders through business models that need explaining, and derive from that the leverage a buyer can raise. A lender who has understood the case in advance is less likely to drop out at credit committee. That supports both price and timetable.

  • Financing concept instruments, tranches, tenors, debt capacity, underpinned by a financial model
  • Courses of action consequences for cost, flexibility and conditions, each with a recommendation
  • Market test indicative terms from selected lenders on your case, anonymised on request
  • Lender education translating technology and revenue stack into bankability, a defensible leverage figure for prospective buyers
  • Lender readiness materials and credit story for the capital market
  • Sparring a second opinion on offers, structures and agreements, for management, shareholders and the advisory board

What we structure and place

We choose the instrument to fit your situation.

Corporate financing

Repaid out of operating cash flow. · Security at the corporate level, sized on EBITDA and debt service cover.

  • Bank loans & working capital lines

    Bilateral, club deal or syndicated. Term loans for the investment, revolving and guarantee facilities for the working capital needs of day-to-day trading.

  • Unitranche & private credit

    A single debt fund tranche. One lender, one document, no bank club that has to align first.

  • Schuldschein loan

    German instrument between a bank loan and a bond. Placed directly with institutional investors, no securities prospectus.

  • Private placement with institutions

    Note format for insurers and pension providers. Longer tenors than the bank market offers.

Junior & hybrid

Repaid by rank, behind the senior capital. · Ordered by position between debt and equity.

  • Junior debt

    Subordinated loans, second lien, shareholder and vendor loans. Interest-bearing only; whether paid in cash, deferred or accrued as PIK is a term, not a category.

  • Mezzanine with value participation

    Interest plus a share in value growth, through an equity kicker, a warrant or conversion.

  • Equity-like capital

    Profit participation rights and silent partnerships. No shareholder status; capable of qualifying as economic equity depending on the terms.

Asset- and project-based

Repaid out of the asset or the project cash flow. · Recourse to the sponsor limited or excluded.

  • Project finance

    Non-recourse and limited-recourse structures for renewables, storage, heat and infrastructure.

  • Asset-based lending

    The line is sized against the ongoing value of receivables, inventory or fixed assets rather than the company’s credit rating.

  • Leasing & factoring

    Individual assets and receivables carved out of the security package, to relieve the main facility.

  • Development capital

    Funding project development ahead of ready-to-build status, through to bankability. It carries development risk and is priced like equity.

The process is part of the product

Six steps to close

Preparation

  1. Analysis & financeability

    Figures, contracts and business plan are analysed. What the case can carry in debt is settled.

  2. Structuring

    The proposal goes to the market only once you have signed it off.

Market

  1. Materials

    Signed off by you and robust in front of credit analysts, lawyers and committees. Anything corrected after that point is seen by every lender.

  2. Lender process

    Indicative offers are in. This is where your own effort sits: management presentations and the questions from credit departments.

Close

  1. Term sheet & negotiation

    You make the choice; exclusivity goes only to the lender that wins it.

  2. Documentation & close

    Credit decisions are in; only the agreement and its conditions remain open.

Common questions

Debt advisory questions: fees, process, timing

What does debt advisory cost?

The fee typically has two parts. An ongoing component, charged by the hour or as a monthly retainer, covers the work during the process. The success fee falls due only when the financing closes and makes up the larger part. How both parts are sized is always agreed individually for each mandate, according to occasion, size and complexity.

Debt adviser or relationship bank: do we need an adviser if we already have strong bank relationships?

Good bank relationships are an asset, and they stay intact in the process. Your house banks represent two or three views; the lender market relevant to your plans is considerably wider. We bring the existing banks into the process and add further names. A structured process with genuine competition improves terms and structure, and takes load off your team while the business keeps running.

How does a financing process with a debt adviser work?

In six steps. It starts with the financeability analysis and structuring; we then prepare the materials and approach the selected lenders in parallel. From the offers we negotiate the term sheet and see the documentation through to financial close. We run the process, your team provides the figures and takes the decisions.

How long does it take to reach financial close?

That depends on the scope of the financing. A corporate financing within the existing business, such as a refinancing, usually takes three to six months from mandate start, a project financing six to twelve months or more. An acquisition financing can be in place in six to eight weeks if the structure is agreed and the materials are complete. The earlier you start, the more options stay open and the less you negotiate under time pressure.

How much competition among lenders is useful?

Enough to produce several comparable offers. We select lenders by appetite, ticket size and instrument, approach them in parallel and give all of them the same materials and deadlines. If the group is drawn too wide, individual lenders review the case less thoroughly, your team is tied up for longer, and word of the process spreads in the market.

What does independence mean in practice?

We advise exclusively the borrower and sponsor side. We are paid solely by our clients; we accept no commissions, introduction fees or retrocessions from capital providers. Instrument, structure and choice of lenders therefore follow your situation and objectives alone.

Would you ever decline a mandate?

Yes. If a case is not financeable under any reasonable structure, we say so openly at the outset and spare everyone an expensive process. We take on mandates where we see a financeable structure.

Next Situations Clients About

A conversation will show which part of this applies to you.

Tell us about your plans, and we will set out the approach, the timeline and who does what in a process like this. Confidential and without obligation.

Arrange a conversation

Direct mathias@blueanima.de +49 89 25552704