The Importance of Cultivating Borrower-Lender Relationships

As a private equity borrower in the ever-changing healthcare field, you have leverage in your deals with lenders.

Penny Zacharias, Clayton Stallbaumer, and Ying Hsu are all partners in McGuireWoods’ debt finance group. They regularly work on sponsor-backed lending transactions in the healthcare space, and are particularly familiar with the borrower side of the equation.

To these experts, if you’re a private equity borrower in this field, the most important tool at your disposal is communication — and staying organized.

“Look at the long-term and think of this as a relationship,” Clayton says. “We've seen private equity firms and their portfolio company borrowers have a lot of success when they frame their communications in a way that is honest, but benefits them.”

If you are looking for funding in an innovative field like healthcare, you’ll want to be able to feel like there’s room for change. Better communication at the outset of the credit facility will enable more flexibility down the line.

And have a system for all those documents. Ying says that organizations doing complex healthcare deals should make sure they have all their paperwork together, and get all the needed signatures in advance where possible, so they can get the deal passed efficiently. There should be no surprises the night before you close.

Tune into the episode to hear from these debt financing professionals about how you can form great relationships with your lenders and keep your finger on the pulse of the borrowing landscape, to make sure you’re getting the best deal.

 

Featured Experts

Name: Penny Zacharias

What she does: Penny is a partner in the debt finance group at McGuireWoods, where she draws on her 15 years of legal experience to represent financial institutions in a broad range of lending transactions. She is also the co-chair of the company’s Women in Private Equity & Finance Initiative. 

Organization: McGuireWoods

Words of wisdom: “Thinking of your lender as a partner will afford a greater level of flexibility in negotiating from the outset.” 

Connect: LinkedIn

Name: Ying Hsu

What she does: Ying is a partner in the debt finance group at McGuireWoods, working in ABL and healthcare. She also serves as the deputy co-chair of the Women Lawyers Network of McGuireWoods’ Chicago office.

Organization: McGuireWoods 

Words of wisdom: “Nothing beats being hyper-organized about closing deliverables when it comes to making the process go as smoothly as possible.” 

Connect: LinkedIn

Name: Clayton Stallbaumer 

What he does: Clayton is a partner in the debt finance group at McGuireWoods, representing agents, lenders, borrowers, private-equity firms, and debt funds in a range of lending transactions. 

Organization: McGuireWoods

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