Five Steps to Refinancing Your Credit Facility
Key Takeaways:
While it may seem easier to refinance with your existing lender when it’s time to refinance your credit facility, you are more likely to drive better terms and pricing when you explore new lending partners.
An effective refinancing process involves several steps, such as understanding market conditions, executing a competitive bid process, and navigating alternative deal structures.
Detailed evaluation and expert advice from experienced advisors can lead to better terms and successful, long-term financial partnerships with new or existing lenders.
Below, we outline five key steps to a successful credit facility refinancing.
How to Successfully Refinance a Credit Facility: A Step-by-Step Guide
Refinancing a credit facility is an important component of financial management for most companies. CFOs, along with their finance teams, must carefully assess their current lending agreements, current market conditions, and future business requirements to determine when and how to refinance their credit facility to optimize their company’s financial flexibility and reduce costs.
What Is a Credit Facility?
A credit facility is a flexible type of lending agreement provided by banks and financial institutions that allows businesses to borrow money to fund operations, growth initiatives and a range of corporate needs. A credit facility can include a revolving and a fixed component. The revolving component, or revolving credit facility, allows a company to access funds on as needed over the life of the facility. Companies borrow under the revolving credit facility and repay it continuously over the life of the agreement, paying interest on the portion that is drawn and a fee on the portion that is undrawn. The fixed component, or term loan, is funded at closing and is repaid according to a pre-agreed schedule or at maturity. Interest is paid on the balance over the life of the agreement. These credit facilities are fundamental in managing a company’s cash flow and growth, especially when it comes to balancing short-term operational costs or large capital expenditures, such as:
Working capital requirements
Funding growth projects
Financing an acquisition
Paying a one-time dividend to shareholders
Buying out existing shareholders
Positioning the company to navigate a challenging economic environment
As companies grow or face challenging market conditions, refinancing becomes an opportunity to secure better terms, reduce interest expense, or extend the duration of available credit.
Key Benefits of Refinancing a Credit Facility
Credit facilities are financial tools that can significantly impact the operational stability and growth potential of a business. Read more about why and how companies refinance their debt. Refinancing your credit facility can carry several potential benefits:
Increasing the size of the credit facility
Extending the repayment period or maturity date
Lowering interest rates, which lowers your overall interest expense
Revising payment terms so they are more favorable to your business needs
However, refinancing is a multifaceted process that involves evaluating market conditions, negotiating with lenders, and ensuring the terms of the new facility align with the company’s financial goals. Below are five detailed steps to successfully refinance your credit facility.
Step One: Understand the Market Landscape
Financing markets are dynamic - pricing and terms are constantly shifting and are influenced by a variety of factors including interest rate movements, regulatory changes, the risk assessment of various industries, and the broader economic environment.
As a result, understanding both the current market environment and how key lenders will view your situation is important to identifying the right lenders and designing a process that will deliver optimal results.
Key Questions to Consider to Understand Current Market Conditions
Several factors influence current market conditions; in order to gauge a full and accurate picture, you should ask a few important questions. Additionally, working with a financial advisor, like Keene Advisors, can help as tracking trends and market conditions is an integral part of our client services.
Key questions to consider include:
What is the current interest rate environment? Interest rates impact the cost of borrowing. Try to understand the current rate environment and expectations for the next six to nine months. Near-term expectations may impact pricing.
Are credit spreads expanding or contracting? Credit spreads reflect the difference between the underlying base rate and the interest rates charged to companies based on their credit risk. When spreads are narrow, borrowing costs are lower. Conversely, wider credit spreads mean higher borrowing costs. Knowing where spreads stand and if they have been contracting or expanding can guide decision-making on the right time to refinance.
What are the latest trends in key terms and covenants? Financial covenants, which are limits a lender will set on financial, leverage, or liquidity ratios a company needs to maintain, can vary based on market conditions or industry. It is helpful for companies to understand what can be negotiated.
How are lenders considering exposure to your industry? Sectors fall in and out of favor with lenders. Understanding how your industry fares is helpful for managing timing and expectations.
Are lenders more or less aggressive than when you did your last financing? Understanding how the lending market compares to when you did your last round of financing can help set expectations for pricing and terms.
Step Two: Approach the Right Group of Potential Lenders
Identifying the “right” group of potential lenders is critical to success. The “right” lenders have experience in your industry, are actively seeking to lend to more companies in your industry, are comfortable with the size of credit facility you need, have the capacity to grow their commitments as your company grows, and will be good all-around partners. Leverage an experienced financial advisor to assist you in identifying the group of lenders that meet these criteria.
Factors to Consider When Choosing Potential Lenders
Industry experience: Lenders familiar with your sector are more likely to understand your business model and growth prospects.
Credit facility size: It's important to choose lenders who are comfortable with the size of the credit facility you need, as well as those who have the capacity to expand their commitments as your business grows.
Lender appetite: Some lenders are looking to increase their exposure in certain industries, while others may be pulling back. Identifying lenders actively seeking to increase their lending in your sector can lead to more competitive terms for your company.
Long-term partnership potential: Refinancing a credit facility is more than just negotiating rates and terms. It is also about building a long-term relationship with lenders who can support your company as it grows or navigates difficult times. Lenders who see potential in your business may be more willing to offer flexible terms or make concessions along the way to build a lasting relationship.
Leveraging Experienced Advisors for Identifying Lenders
Identifying the right lending partner is not always straightforward, and this is where advisors can play an invaluable role. Financial advisors have the expertise and experience to guide you through the complex landscape of lending options, ensuring you make informed decisions.
Expert Guidance: Advisors can provide insights and recommendations based on their comprehensive market knowledge. They can help you compare various lenders, keeping your specific needs and limitations in mind.
Access to Network: Established advisors often have a network of reputable lenders they can introduce you to. This can save you considerable time and effort in searching for reliable options.
Negotiation Power: Advisors can negotiate terms on your behalf, leveraging their relationships with lenders to secure more favorable loan terms and conditions.
Risk Management: They can also help identify potential risks associated with different lending options, helping you make a balanced and well-informed choice.
Consulting with advisors adds a layer of expertise to your decision-making process – we discuss more about working with an advisor in step 5.
Step Three: Run a Disciplined, Competitive Process
Lenders are more amenable to flexible pricing, fees and terms in a competitive bid environment. To ensure a competitive process, be certain to include a number of the “right” lenders (see step 2)—we recommend including at least three potential lead lenders to give you the best possible outcome.
A structured and clearly defined process involves:
Include multiple lenders: A robust process should include at least three potential lead lenders, focusing on the right fit as defined in step 2. Depending on the size and complexity of your refinancing needs, it may be beneficial to engage more potential lenders. You will want to solicit a broad range of offers for comparison.
Share clear and uniform information: Each potential lender should have access to the same financial data, operational performance metrics, and business projections to ensure fairness in the process.
Set deadlines and milestones: Establishing a timeline for the entire process, from preliminary due diligence to the submission and negotiation of term sheets, keeps everyone focused and moving forward. It also signals to lenders that you are serious about moving quickly.
Dedicate time and resources to negotiation and lead lender selection: Once offers are in, you will want to negotiate key terms and select a lead lender or group of lenders (called a syndication) as quickly as possible.
Ultimately, executing a robust competitive process is about meticulous planning, fairness, and strategic negotiations. By adhering to these principles, you can ensure not only a successful procurement but also the establishment of long-term, beneficial partnerships.
Step Four: Select the Right Lending Partner(s)
The final decision about who will lead your credit facility can be complex. It requires evaluating a wide range of potential terms and deal structures and determining what works best for your company, given your current and projected financial performance, growth characteristics, liquidity requirements, and capital needs, among others.
It also requires assessing the level of partnership you can expect from the lead lender and the fit between multiple lenders in a syndicated facility. An experienced financial advisor can help you evaluate all the variables and make the best decision for your refinancing.
Step Five: Use a Third-Party Financial Advisor as an Intermediary
Hiring an experienced financial advisor who can help you understand the market conditions, identify the “right” lenders, run a disciplined process, negotiate and close the credit facility will put you in a position to be successful. An experienced financial advisor can be more aggressive in negotiations, allowing you to preserve or cultivate a stronger partnership with your lender(s).
At Keene Advisors, we have structured processes to help our clients:
Identify the best lending partner(s)
Reduce upfront fees
Reduce SOFR margin/fixed interest rate
Reduce interest on undrawn fees
Improve financial covenant flexibility
Extend maturity
Add delayed-draw and/or accordion features
Add an acquisition holiday
Improve definitions, including EBITDA add-backs
Schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss refinancing your credit facility:
Keene Advisors Insight Series: Corporate Debt Financing
Keene Advisors is experienced in advising companies on a wide range of leveraged finance transactions and corporate finance matters. Our team has advised clients in connection with over $20 billion of financing commitments and corporate debt capital-raising transactions. We have helped clients fund organic growth, dividends to shareholders, buyouts of existing shareholders and acquisitions, as well as to refinance existing debt. In addition, our team has advised clients on credit agreement amendments, operational and balance sheet restructurings, and a range of bankruptcy-related matters.
Contact us today to schedule a free consultation to discuss refinancing your company’s credit facility.
Disclaimer: This commentary is intended for general informational purposes only. Keene Advisors does not render or offer to render personalized financial, investment, tax, legal or accounting advice through this report. The information provided herein is not directed at any investor or category of investors and is provided solely as general information. No information contained herein should be regarded as a suggestion to engage in or refrain from any investment-related course of action. Keene Advisors does not provide securities related services or recommendations to retail investors. Nothing in this report should be construed as, and may not be used in connection with, an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or hold, an interest in any security or investment product.