Briar Capital Real Estate Fund closed a new $10 million Debtor-in-possession (DIP) loan to a chemical manufacturer in Houston, TX. Using the company’s manufacturing plant and excess land as collateral, Briar Capital provided a DIP loan facility to allow the business time to reorganize and position itself for a successful exit in the future.
 
Briar Capital was brought into this transaction by a prominent investment banking team who had been hired to market the business for sale a couple of years ago. After emerging from a costly 2-year exclusive courtship by a business suitor who failed to perform, this company found itself challenged from a liquidity standpoint resulting from changes in its supply chain and other business conditions. Despite having a valuable business model and positive long-term trends on the horizon, they found themselves without any option but to file for bankruptcy protection and that’s where Briar Capital stepped in.
 
After exploring several alternatives, the investment banking team felt Briar Capital was uniquely positioned to provide a real estate DIP loan due to its real estate lending expertise, both in and out of bankruptcy, as well as its relationship with the company’s current working capital lender. Working hand and hand with the ABL lender and investment banking team, a plan was crafted to ensure the company had access to enough capital to effectively manage the business while in bankruptcy and allow the investment banker time to remarket the business once again for sale.
 
Leah Goldberg, Briar Capital’s CFO said, “With the assistance and cooperation of the ABL lender, we were able to use the equity in the company’s real estate to provide them access to a significant amount working capital that will take them well into 2024 and allow ownership to opportunity to maximize the sale price of the business.”
 
“Our unique experience in this space affords us opportunities like this to work closely with other lending and referral partners” said Jeff Van Sickle, Briar Capital’s President. “As the longest tenured and most experienced real estate lender focused exclusively on the owner-occupied real estate space in the country, we appreciate that others in the industry trust us, and we take earning that trust seriously.”