A software company with recurring subscription income and almost no physical assets asks for a US$3m loan. The bank's standard template asks for security over property and plant.
THE IN-TRAY · CHAPTER 5 OF HOW BANKERS THINK
6 files on The Lendability Matrix
The question this chapter answers: What kind of debt can this industry support — and where does that read break?
Make a call on any file and every option opens with how far it sits from the senior banker’s read. There is no score.
A trucking company owns its fleet and earns from spot freight rates that swing widely from year to year.
What kind of lending fits?
An events business: no owned assets, revenue that halves in a bad year, a well-regarded founder. It wants US$1m to expand.
Your first read?
On paper a dairy processor sits in the matrix's best quadrant: heavy assets, stable cash flow. Milk prices are at a ten-year high.
What do you ask?
A packaging maker: owned plant, ten-year contracted revenue, and one customer buying 70% of its output.
Which fact do you weigh first?
A winery owns its vineyards, land worth more than the loan, but its earnings swing with each vintage and with export prices. It wants a ten-year loan repaid in equal instalments.
Your view?
6 FILES · PICK A CALL ON ANY OF THEM
// THE WHOLE TRAY
The placement draws three files from each of the eight chapters and ends in a card of where you read from.
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The Lab.
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