Company with a Past

In 1986, a company was established to manufacture college and university Campus Telephone Directories. Their objective was to serve the needs of higher education in the specialty directory publishing industry. The company started with a single publication and has grown to be one of the largest publishers of campus directories in the United States.

As part of their growth strategy, the company decided to expand their products and services to the Internet. With this decision, they undertook expensive corporate restructuring and spent several million dollars on Internet development. The company’s focus shifted from their core business of directory publishing to that of Internet development. This resulted in two years of losses.

Given the deterioration in the Company’s financial performance, their bank required cash collateral to secure any credit facility. BCP Capital, LP was able to structure transactions that provided immediate cash collateral to a seasonal business, smooth cash flow over the year and assist company to reestablish credit with vendors by providing a $1,800,000 credit facility.

Ultimately, BCP was able to assist the company in achieving their goal—to be the largest provider of high quality and useful directories.

Company with Special Needs

Incorporated in 1997, this Company provides the direct mail marketing and advertising services including database management, bindery, packaging, personalization, mail preparation and inserting. The diversity of its customer base and the services performed for them reflects the expansive marketing and advertising services that it provides.

In 2000, the Company decided to open up a facility in the South and buy out one of the shareholders resulting in negative cash flow. The Company was seeking a replacement for its credit facility, whose parent company was acquired by another lender. One of the merger’s affects was a re-evaluation and a termination of the Company’s asset-based lending facility with the bank.

BCP was able to take out the existing receivable line of credit with the Company’s bank through a six month bridge loan against machinery and equipment. Consequently, the company had time to find a substitute long-term lender.

Company with an Opportunity

This 15-year-old company functions as a service bureau for financial institutions and handles and processes its clients inbound credit card applications via interactive voice response. Insofar as the company’s primary focus is on the delivery of its services to financial institutions, it also provides grade reporting and official transcript ordering services to over 50 colleges and universities.

In 1998, the owners sold the company to a public corporation. In the face of continual losses, the corporation was draining profits from the original company. The original owners decided to purchase the company back.

The owners requested a factoring facility for working capital purposes. BCP evaluated the deal based on the owners’ management experience, the Company’s client base, and their strong relationships with several Fortune 100 companies. BCP Capital provided a $1,000,000 factoring facility to fund the business’s operating cash needs.