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// HIGHBANKISSUE 01 · ON THE BOOK

Pacific Premium Foods Ltd

SPECIALTY FOOD MANUFACTURING · NORTH ISLAND

Fifteen years old, family-owned, premium ready meals into supermarkets and food service. The founder-MD is still operational; the second generation has been taking on commercial responsibility for three years. Six years with the bank, clean conduct, annual reviews on time.

COMPOSITE TEACHING CASE

Pacific Premium Foods 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
Existing
US$3.5m revolver
Requested
US$5.0m revolver
Asked for by
Friday, for next month's procurement
ON THE FILE
Revenue
US$42m, up 50% in two years
EBITDA margin
9%, down 210 bps
Operating cash flow
−US$0.6m, flipped negative
Debtor days
82, up 34
Inventory
US$3.8m, up 138%

// WHAT THE BANK DID

Declined as framed, with a different conversation offered in its place: a term loan for what the growth had already absorbed, and a working capital line sized to the cycle rather than to the ask.

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 01

// 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 Pacific Premium Foods. This record holds published files only — when the business next appears in an issue, its entry grows.

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