We run the raise. You run the business.
Debt advisers to the lower-mid-market.
Across the whole market, on the borrower’s side.
Solon advises companies raising or refinancing debt across the capital structure. We frame the credit story, run a competitive process across the whole market to secure the best terms available for the borrower, and negotiate the financing through to close.
Three in five businesses seeking finance approach a single lender, and stop there.
A bank declines, or offers only on terms the company should not accept.
An offer arrives with a full personal guarantee, an all-asset debenture and covenants that will constrain the business.
An acquisition or a maturing facility is running against a clock, with no time to run a proper process unaided.
The market behind that habit has moved. On the British Business Bank’s figures, the big high-street banks now supply less than half of new lending to smaller businesses; challenger and specialist banks, private-credit funds and asset-based lenders write the rest, each to its own appetite. Yet only 38% of smaller businesses seeking finance consider more than one provider, on HM Treasury’s figures. A company that accepts the first offer on the table rarely sees the best available terms; no single counterparty competes against itself.
A full process, from credit story to completion.
Frame the credit story.
We set out the business, the ask and the credit case the way a credit committee reads it. Structuring advice and credit positioning come from the outset.
Prepare the materials.
A clean information memorandum, a built financial model, prepared management presentations and a complete data room, to institutional standard from day one. A lender can reach a credit view without chasing missing information.
Identify the relevant lenders.
We approach the right counterparties across the whole market, drawn from a live read of appetite built from the other side of the table. Then we run a competitive process.
Structure and negotiate.
We negotiate the terms to the best available: the structure across the capital stack, the covenants, the security and the guarantees.
Through to close.
We take the financing through credit documentation to completion, with every term sheet set side by side and a clear recommendation on each. The client decides.11Most of a raise runs twelve to sixteen weeks from mandate to money; a refinancing against a maturity can move faster once the materials are ready.
An adviser aligned with the client.
Whole-of-market reach. We know which lenders say yes, from the other side of the table, across banks, specialist and asset-based lenders and private-credit funds, and we put them in competition for the financing.
Paid by the client we act for: a success fee on completion, with any retainer credited against it. Where the honest answer is to take the bank’s offer, or not to borrow at all, we will say so.
Every mandate is led end-to-end by the Managing Director, from framing the credit story through negotiation and documentation to completion.
The recommendation follows the best terms, and nothing else.
The owners and finance directors of the lower-mid-market.
Owner-managers, finance directors and chief financial officers of UK lower-mid-market companies raising or refinancing a facility of roughly £3–15m, for an acquisition, growth capital or a recapitalisation. We act UK-wide, on the borrower’s side, and where the company’s accountant or corporate adviser makes the introduction, we work alongside them.
Request a confidential conversation.
If you are weighing a financing, whether a raise, a refinancing, or terms you are not sure you should accept, an early and confidential conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. You get a straight read on the options, and on whether we are the right adviser for the situation.
Managing Director · Solon Corporate Finance
If you are an accountant or corporate adviser considering an introduction, see how we work with introducers.