By Ken Altena, Billboard Loans LLC. I track the Federal Reserve Senior Loan Officer Survey on Bank Lending Practices to determine if credit is tight or loose. Banks have been tightening their lending standards for small firms (revenue less than $50 million) for four consecutive quarters due to recession fears. […]
Billboard Lending
Billboard Loans does not make radio station loans.
From time to time we get asked what sectors we lend to. Billboard loans makes loans to: out of home advertising companies which operate a billboard bulletin or poster plant. digital billboard companies. transit advertising companies 8 sheet companies which operate small billboards. We avoid the following loans: Radio station […]
Now’s the time to ask for better loan terms
Now is a good time to refinance and extend your out of home company’s credit lines. Bank loan chargeoffs have been extremely low for the past 4 years. In response, banks are loosening credit terms and reducing loan spreads. Lower cost loans and easy credit terms will disappear when the […]
4 Tips When Seeking A Billboard Loan
Here are four tips when seeking out of home financing: look for debt before you need it, cultivate multiple lenders, know your lender and don’t borrow too much. One: Look For Debt When You Don’t Need It. Start talking to lenders before you need them. It will allow you to […]
Dave Westburg on Billboard Lending
Jim Johnsen of Johnsen Fretty interviewed Dave Westburg of Billboard Loans about billboard lending. We’ve reproduced the interview below. Dave, you’ve done a terrific job building Billboard Insider into a great source of information. I enjoy reading it first thing each morning. I feel very honored to sit in your seat […]
Avoid the Equipment Leasing Death Penalty
Almost all equipment leasing companies except Billboard Loans have prepayment penalties. Sometimes the prepayment penalties are called yield maintenance clauses. Sometimes the prepayment penalty is a fixed % of the lease amount (5% in year 1, 4% in year 2, 3% in year 3…). The death penalty prepayment clause says […]
8 Items Your Outdoor Lender Wants
I take at least a phone call a week from a small outdoor company looking for financing. Sometimes the process drags on because the outdoor company doesn’t have the information Insider needs to evaluate the loan request. Here’s the information you should put together before you approach a lender. By […]
Limit Outdoor Debt to 3X Gross Revenue
3 times annualized revenues is a reasonable debt limit for most small billboard companies. Here’s why. If you borrow less than 3 times gross revenue, your plant will be worth more than debt even if revenues drop and multiples contract during a recession. Industry revenues declined 20% during the 2008-2009 […]
Federal Reseve cracks down on risky loans.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the federal reserve is cracking down on risky loans which have the following characteristics: Lax repayment schedules. An absence of loan covenants. Debt/Cashflow (earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization) in excess of 6:1. A crackdown may mean the regulators put the heat on Clear […]
If you think the big banks don’t want to lend to you it’s because they don’t.
The Wall Street Journal writes this morning that the biggest banks in the US are making far fewer loans to small businesses than they did a decade ago. The Journal reports that the 10 largest US banks held $44 billion in small business loans (loans less than $1 million) in […]
