What a lender deck looks like.
The lender deck is the same credit as the information memorandum, told in slides, the version a lender walks through in the room and takes back to committee. This page sets the deck out section by section, with the 30-slide specimen to download.
The credit at presentation pace.
Where the IM is written to be read cold, the deck is built to present, with charts that make the case at a glance. It leads the management meetings and anchors the questions.
The lender deck, section by section.
| Section | The question it answers | What a credit officer checks |
|---|---|---|
| Executive summary | What is the credit, in two slides? | That the thesis says what drives the cash, and the key figures come from the model |
| Transaction, sources and uses | What is asked for, and where does the money go? | That sources equal uses and each use of the proceeds is specific |
| Capital structure and key terms | What does the debt look like on day one? | Opening leverage against the covenant, and each facility’s margin, amortisation, sweep and maturity |
| The business, customers and market | Do the customers stay, and is the demand durable? | That concentration and tenure are stated and the company’s position in its niche is evidenced |
| Operations and growth programme | What carries the forecast? | The capex programme, how it is funded, and whether it can be phased if volumes soften |
| Management | How deep is the bench? | That the bench runs deeper than one person and key-person risk is covered |
| Credit highlights | Why lend to this business? | The evidence behind each highlight, such as reorder rates, margin history and cash conversion |
| Financial performance and quality of earnings | How good are the earnings? | Three years of actuals, and the bridge from reported to covenant EBITDA with what supports each add-back |
| Cash conversion and debt service | Does the cash pay the debt? | CFADS against interest and amortisation in every year, and how a thin year is funded |
| Covenant headroom and breakeven | How far can earnings fall? | Headroom at each test date, and the EBITDA shortfall that breaks the first covenant once cash and net debt move with it |
| Liquidity | Does cash clear its floor? | Cash plus the undrawn revolver against the minimum, in every case |
| Scenarios and first breach | What protects the lender if the plan misses? | That the downside stays inside the covenants, what drives it, and where and when the severe case first breaks |
| Risks and mitigants | What could go wrong? | Each risk with its modelled effect, the protection in the terms and the risk that remains |
| Process, basis and appendix | What happens next, and where do the numbers come from? | That the timetable holds and every figure traces to the model |
The deck travels with the IM, with the model behind both.
A story that survives the retelling.
In the room, the lender’s deal team tests whether management knows its own business. The second reading matters more: the deal team that takes the deck to committee needs it to answer the sceptical colleague who was not in the room, so the downside and the mitigants belong on their own slides.
A full specimen deck, slide by slide.
The specimen below is a complete Solon lender deck on the same fictional borrower as the specimen IM, Northstar Components, a £14.6m refinancing and growth facility. Both come from the same integrated model, so the two read side by side as a pack and agree figure for figure. No real company, no live mandate, and nothing in it is an offer or advice.
Want this for your own business? Solon prepares this pack for the borrower, and the first conversation is confidential.
Discuss a pack for your business