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// HIGHBANKISSUE 08 · ON THE BOOK

Basalt Ridge Developments Ltd

RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT · CHRISTCHURCH

A townhouse developer with six completed projects in eight years, all funded by a second-tier lender whose pricing he calls a tax on not being known. New to this bank, with a polished deck and two other banks reading it.

COMPOSITE TEACHING CASE

Basalt Ridge Developments Ltd is a fictional construction. The figures, relationships and decisions on this page are illustrative — built for teaching, not drawn from any real borrower or transaction.

// WHAT WAS ASKED

THE REQUEST
Requested
US$8.5m senior debt
Project
24 townhouses, land already settled
Loan to cost
55% of total development cost
Timing
Two other banks have the deck
ON THE FILE
Presales
40%, against a 60% policy
Claimed ROE
28% across six projects, unverified
Build contingency
3.5%
Suburb median price
Down 4% in six months

// WHAT THE BANK DID

Offered the relationship rather than this deal: a smaller first project, or this one at materially lower leverage, priced so that both sides get to the next six.

The reasoning is in the file itself — the four options that were on the table, how readers answered, and the senior banker's read of the same numbers.

Open issue 08

// READ FROM OTHER CHAIRS

The same file, and the same week, from the chairs of the people on the other side of it.

Nothing further is recorded here about Basalt Ridge Developments. This record holds published files only — when the business next appears in an issue, its entry grows.

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