Bespoke business funding

Bespoke funding applies where a requirement does not fit an established product category: unusual or hard-to-value collateral, a combination of jurisdictions with differing legal and security regimes, a need to blend debt and equity, or a transaction requiring several coordinated facilities from different providers. It is common in cross-border group restructurings, complex asset portfolios and situations combining trading, property and equipment within one financing need.

It also covers scenarios where a business has already approached conventional lenders without success, not because the underlying credit is weak, but because the request falls outside standard product parameters or the timeline, geography or asset mix requires a provider with a specific mandate.

GFG begins by decomposing the overall requirement into its constituent risks — working capital, asset-backed, property, cross-border or equity-linked — and identifies which elements are better served by different providers rather than forcing a single lender to underwrite the whole. Facilities are then sequenced and, where necessary, governed by an intercreditor agreement setting out priority between providers.

Hybrid debt and equity structures are used where pure debt cannot support the full requirement; this might combine a senior asset-backed facility with a mezzanine or preferred equity tranche, or debt alongside a minority equity investment from a strategic or family office investor.

Because bespoke transactions are underwritten individually rather than against standard product criteria, the diligence process is broader: legal structure and group organisation, the enforceability of security across jurisdictions, the valuation basis for any non-standard collateral, and the coherence of the overall plan tying the elements together.

Providers of bespoke capital place particular weight on the quality and completeness of information provided upfront, since the absence of a template product means underwriting decisions rely more heavily on bespoke analysis of the specific facts than on comparison to a known asset class.

Pricing varies materially by structure and is generally at the upper end of the range for the closest comparable conventional product, reflecting the additional structuring, legal and monitoring work involved; a blended cost across several facilities is more informative than any single headline rate.

Legal and advisory costs are typically higher than for a standard facility given the number of documents, jurisdictions or provider relationships involved, and should be budgeted for explicitly at the outset of the process.

Following an initial assessment call and review of financial information, GFG proposes one or more candidate structures, tests appetite with providers who have a mandate for the specific risk profile, and coordinates the resulting facilities through to completion.

Timelines vary widely by complexity; single-jurisdiction combinations of two facilities can complete within eight to twelve weeks, while multi-jurisdiction or hybrid equity structures typically take three to six months given the additional legal and negotiation steps involved.