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How to unlock opportunities in the sponsor-less SME loan market

Sponsor-less transactions are largely misunderstood. With greater liquidity and mounting interest from institutional investors, can we expect an influx of non-sponsor transactions funded by direct lenders?

In this piece, Alexandra Trapes, Director, Specialist Credit and CLOs, argues that sponsor-less transactions offer a compelling opportunity in the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) loan space – they generally see less competitive bidding, resulting in more reasonable leverage ratios, less pressure on pricing levels, more conservative loan terms, and meaningful covenants.

What's more, private debt funds with co-lending agreements in place at the local and regional level are in the best position to capitalise on these opportunities. 

To find out more, read the full article.

 

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Alexandra Trapes
Director, Direct Lending, Federated Hermes Limited

Alexandra joined in October 2015 from GE Capital in London, where she was a director in the leveraged finance division. In this role, Alexandra was a key member of the team that managed a European leveraged loan portfolio of more than $4.7bn and was mandated lead arranger for mid-cap, club and unitranche transactions. She managed loans extended to companies operating in a broad range of sectors, including business services, retail, food, education and construction. Prior to this, Alexandra worked for six years in the leveraged finance underwriting business of Royal Bank of Scotland, where she focused on UK mid-market leveraged and acquisition finance deals after working on European large-cap private equity-backed transactions. A French national, she holds a Specialised Masters in Corporate Finance from the EM Lyon School of Management and a Master of Science in Management from the ESC Grenoble School of Management.

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