A Lender’s ‘Eyes and Ears’: Field Visits by Expert Teams Can Boost Appraisal Accuracy

Thanks to the astonishing growth in the power and complexity of data-gathering technologies, the role of analytics is looming larger than ever at businesses of all types and sizes. Indeed, c-suites everywhere buzz with talk of “big data” and its potentially transformative role. And when it comes to asset-based appraisals in the wholesale, retail and manufacturing sectors, it is certainly true that analytical reporting — […]

Continue Reading >A Lender’s ‘Eyes and Ears’: Field Visits by Expert Teams Can Boost Appraisal Accuracy

Game over? : Downloading poses threat to video game stores and Related Collateral

Explosions and firefights are part and parcel of today’s videogames, but a different sort of “creative destruction” is at play within the industry itself. After decades in which video games were available mostly on physical media like discs and cartridges, the arrival of trends such as mobile gaming, digital downloading and cloud computing promises to change the way people buy and play video games in […]

Continue Reading >Game over? : Downloading poses threat to video game stores and Related Collateral

The double edged sword: Assessing the potential value of ‘ineligible inventory’

Ineligible inventory – a category of assets that banks avoid lending against – can represent a double-edged sword for asset-based lenders. On the one hand, lenders know that when they don’t lend against such items as raw materials, samples, in-transit goods, or slow-moving inventory, they can often leave themselves a cushion to recoup value and mitigate risk. On the other and, experienced lenders are not […]

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Teen apparel retailers embrace fast fashion

Mall-based teen apparel retailers have struggled over the past few years amid growing competition from lower-priced “fast-fash¬ion” chains such as H&M and Forever 21, as well as the likes of off-price retailer TJ Maxx and Internet players ranging from Amazon to Zappos.

But retail CEOs have more to worry about. They are particularly concerned about broader trends at play in teen apparel retailing, including high unemploy¬ment […]

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Value of Script Lists On The Upswing

In an ongoing effort to capitalize on the rapidly expanding prescription drug market in the U.S., pharmacy operators are placing a premium on prescription volume. A given pharmacy location’s volume is represented by the prescription file — also known as the script list within the pharmacy industry—which represents the number of prescriptions filled over a given period of time. A closer look also reveals that […]

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Fracking and Shale; M&E Appraisers Need to Understand that Not All Drill Sites are Created Equal

For the past several years, high-volume hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”) has helped the U.S. energy sector extract more and more petroleum and natural gas from shale and other deposits deep beneath the surface of the earth. The development of this technology in itself would be a boon to borrowers in oil and gas. But it happens to also coincide with a string of truly massive […]

Continue Reading >Fracking and Shale; M&E Appraisers Need to Understand that Not All Drill Sites are Created Equal

Web-based liquidations: Best practices for a fast-growing phenomenon

Just as growing numbers of traditional retailers have learned to augment their core brick-and-mortar assets by building well-trafficked e-commerce sites, liquidation firms serving the ABL industry are also mastering the nuances of leveraging the Internet as an effective sales channel. Those in our industry have considerable reason to do so. After all, more e-tailers are now seeking ABL loans, and even liquidations of purely brickand-mortar […]

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Know your boundaries: Don’t treat Canada like a 51st state

To get a feel for how excited some Canadians are about the prospect of foreign brands entering the country, take a look at the columns of Marina Strauss in The Globe and Mail newspaper. The Toronto-based retail reporter maintains a vigilant watch for the latest scuttlebutt about the Canadian “invasion plans” of chains such as Target, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and Lowe’s. Likewise, the press releases and […]

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AFTER THE MELTDOWN: AppraisalS vs. Liquidation Values HAVE LARGELY held since 2008

In the topsy-turvy period that followed the financial meltdown of 2008, the U.S. economy weathered the liquidation of thousands of companies, including big-name retailers such as Circuit City, Goody’s, Mervyn’s, Gottschalks, and Ritz Camera, to name a few. But the change in market conditions meant that a large number of companies needed updated appraisals right away. The resulting backlog forced the secured lending community to […]

Continue Reading >AFTER THE MELTDOWN: AppraisalS vs. Liquidation Values HAVE LARGELY held since 2008

Keeping the lights on – A key to Chapter 7 recoveries?

When a borrower goes into Chapter 7, it’s natural to focus on the endgame: liquidation. After all, operational concerns come to the fore only in cases involving reorganization, right? Not necessarily. Consider our largelot sale of the majority of former assets from one of North America’s biggest auto parts suppliers — Fenco (Fenwick Automotive Products Ltd., and Introcan).

A major supplier to the likes of AutoZone, […]

Continue Reading >Keeping the lights on – A key to Chapter 7 recoveries?