Asset-based Lending and Insolvency

Asset-based lending has been one of the success stories of the UK debt market over the last decade, enabling businesses to free capital that would otherwise be locked up in receivables, inventory and other assets and to finance rapid expansion. The onset of the international credit crisis has thrown ABL transactions into sharper relief. When borrowers fail, are asset-based lenders better protected than mainstream bank debt providers? What legal issues determine whether a lender will be able to recover the full amount of its advances from the borrower? This book is for asset- based lenders and their legal advisers and explains the options available when the borrower faces insolvency. For those new to the subject, the authors outline how asset- based lending works, and also the regulatory framework for insolvency. Other topics covered include: the review process, rights of acceleration and termination, the option to continue, financing companies in administration, asset enforcement (receivables, stock and IP), the syndication aspects of insolvency, and cross-border insolvency issues.

Grant Jones is an insolvency accountant partner with Cooper Parry LLP. He also practises as an attorney, in-house with a UK hedge fund and as a consultant to the UK firm of Taylor Vinters and the Gibraltar firm of Ellul & Co, as well as having his own arbitration practice. He is a member of the Governing Council of the ICAEW, President of the London Society of Chartered Accountants and a Special Professor of Law at Nottingham University.

Andrew Knight is the head of European Finance at Squire Sanders & Dempsey LLP, a leading authority on asset-based lending, and Guest Lecturer in Law, University of Nottingham.