Bespoke funding to meet challenges and create value
There is no "menu of products" at Mercatus. Each loan is tailored to meet the needs of a specific borrower at a specific time.
Our process combines customization with speed. The first step is, we listen. We work to truly understand a borrower's challenges and opportunities, which allows us to craft a structure that achieves management's goals. Our team's deep experience in credit across industries and capital structures, in both straightforward and complex situations, lets us quickly identify a combination of terms that fit a business best.
No menu…truly custom.
Borrowers
- Lower-middle and middle-market
- Industry agnostic
- EBITDA of $10M to $30M
- Management, family, and/or entrepreneur-owned (non-sponsored or lightly sponsored)
- History of solid cash flows, though positive current cash flow not required
Loans
- Loan sizes of $20M to $75M with flexibility to provide more
- Across North America
- Secured, cash flow based, positive current cash flow not required
- First lien term loans and second lien term loans
- Underwriting that recognizes less-obvious underlying value
- Able to accommodate complex capital structures
Loan purposes
- Working capital
- Growth capital
- M&A
- Ownership transition
- Business model transition
- Legal or regulatory transition
- Recapitalization
- Debt refinancing
- Debtor-In-Possession (DIP) financing
Strong Foundation
Mercatus Finance is backed by Arena Investors, LP, a large global asset manager known for its comfort with complexity and customized credit solutions.
Mercatus was established to bring Arena’s strong financial backing and innovative credit solutions to middle-market companies with strong intrinsic value that are underserved by banks.
Arena’s guiding principle, “Seeing what’s possible,” extends to how Mercatus sees its borrowers as well. Our thoughtful approach to understanding our customers’ businesses means we offer truly unique capital solutions that lower-middle and middle-market companies need.
“ We created Mercatus because we see it as a vehicle for win-wins: The lower-middle-market borrower, a segment we know to be underserved, is able to get the dynamic and highly effective financing it needs, and the platform can earn the risk-adjusted returns for which many lenders are unable or unwilling to work.”