Belvedere: Credit Information

We focus on credit not collateral.

Typically, our lessees have been in business for at least five years and are profitable with good trends.

They have sufficient historical cash flow to service debt, including the proposed financing.

They have working capital and leverage that is reasonable for their industry.

We recognize that there are a few perfect credits these days and we make exceptions to our guidelines. We will finance a company with a loss in the last three years if we are comfortable that the problem has been corrected.

We finance many professional firms with no net worth and non-profits with nominal earnings.

We can even finance start-ups and early-stage companies if there is a solid business plan supported by an exceptionally strong guarantor or substantial liquid collateral.

We are more interested in stability than size. We finance many companies that have sales under $1 million and modest earnings.

We generally require personal guaranties from the principals of closely-held firms.

What we need in a package

Three years of financial statements and interim statements.
Three years of tax returns if the statements are unaudited.
Current financial statement and two years of tax returns for guarantors
Bank reference.

It’s also helpful to have information on:

Deal terms - preferably a signed proposal.
Company background — what’s the “story”.
The equipment — what it is, why it is needed and when does it deliver.
Other lenders.