Companies
Financing for corporates and the Mittelstand
We negotiate your refinancing independently of house bank interests, with capital markets experience on your side of the table.
Context
Your bank negotiates credit agreements every day, you every few years. We ensure a level playing field.
A house bank relationship built over years reliably carries the day-to-day funding requirement. It does not automatically put the right lenders at the table for the next refinancing, an acquisition or a covenant reset. We close that gap. Whether an extension within the existing group, adding further institutions or a structure across debt funds, promotional institutions and capital market instruments: we open up the field and run the process through to close. Competition among lenders is the lever a bilateral conversation cannot provide. The established bank relationships stay intact.
Focus areas
- Working capital
- Plant & equipment
- Site & capacity expansion
- Operating real estate
- Energy & efficiency investment
- Succession & share transfers
Profile
Mittelstand companies, family businesses, group subsidiaries and listed companies.
Group cash flow with full recourse, an established lender group, financing as a secondary task for management.
Structures & instruments
- Syndicated loan and bilateral facilities
- Schuldschein
- Unitranche and mezzanine
- Asset-based: factoring, leasing, sale-and-lease-back
- Promotional loans (KfW, state promotional banks)
Common questions
Questions on corporate finance
- When is the right time for a refinancing?
- We recommend starting the refinancing twelve to eighteen months before maturity. The process itself takes from a few weeks to about a year depending on its scope; the remaining time is headroom for a second attempt. At that point the facility is also not yet a current liability on the balance sheet, and the time pressure is not on you. Starting six months before maturity noticeably narrows the room to negotiate.
- Our facilities have grown bilaterally. Is the move to a syndicated loan worth it?
- Once the number of agreements starts to slow decisions down. Each bilateral facility brings its own documentation, its own covenant definitions and its own negotiation whenever an acquisition, a security release or an amendment comes up. A size no single bank wants to hold alone is not reachable bilaterally in any case. A syndicated facility consolidates this into one agreement with one maturity and one agent. In return, a single covenant package applies to all banks, including the one that has so far given you the most room, and the documentation effort up front is considerably higher. Often a middle course makes sense, for example a core facility in syndication with bilateral lines alongside it for guarantees and seasonal peaks.
- What happens if a covenant is breached?
- Then preparation matters most. Approach the bank early with the deviation explained, a defensible forecast and a concrete amendment proposal, and you negotiate a waiver and adjusted terms. The longer the bank waits for that information, the harder the conversation becomes. We prepare these conversations and conduct them together with you.
Next Services Situations About
When the next maturity moves closer.
Refinancings need lead time so that more than the existing circle of lenders comes into play. Get in touch before the calendar dictates the structure. The exchange stays confidential, whatever comes of it.