The pack a lender reads.
A sample of the kind of work a Solon mandate produces, built on a fictional borrower, Northstar Components, for a £10.5m refinancing. Every page is laid out below; the PDFs are there to take.
Which document does what, and when?
The pack, side by side.
| Document | What it is for | Who reads it | When in a raise | How it relates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One-pager | Deciding whether the rest is opened | The lender’s deal team | First, before the IM | The credit on one page, drawn from the model |
| Information memorandum | Anticipating the lender’s questions | The lender’s deal team, then its credit officer | Under NDA, before anyone meets | The written case, with the model’s exhibits set into the page |
| Lender deck | Presenting the credit and framing the questions | The lender’s deal team, then its committee | At the management meetings | The IM’s credit in slides |
| Credit memorandum | The case in the lender’s own format | The lender’s deal team, for its committee paper | Before the deal team writes its paper | Distils the IM, the deck and the model |
| Debt model | Testing cash and covenants | The credit officer, who runs a downside on it | From the IM onward, reworked by the lender’s analyst | The source of every number in the other four |
At a lender, the deal team originates and sponsors a deal, the credit officer tests it and the credit committee approves it.
Can the credit be understood on one page?
A single page carrying sources and uses, opening leverage and cover, covenant headroom against the thresholds and the credit highlights.
How does the credit present in the room?
The same credit told in slides. It covers the opportunity, the business and its market, three years of financials and the forecast, the structure and the ask, the downside cases and the security.
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Does the case hold when it is read cold?
The document a lender forms its credit view from. The business, the market and the borrower's position in it, management and ownership, the historical financials and the forecast, the transaction and the funding ask, with the model exhibits set into the page.
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What would the credit paper say?
The fuller credit view, set out as an executive summary, sources and uses, forecast metrics, the adjusted-EBITDA bridge, covenant headroom, downside scenarios and a risk register with mitigants.
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Do the numbers reconcile?
Three pages from the model behind the pack, showing the base-case output table, the debt schedule, the covenant tests, the monthly liquidity walk and the scenario grid.
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What is the market these documents are written into?
Solon's count of the UK refinancing wall: 83,957 companies scored against the Companies House charge register, 26,383 carrying a dated facility signal and more than 14,500 inside an estimated window now, with the vintage, lender and holder concentration behind them. Charted aggregates and method; no row-level data.
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Every mandate is prepared to the standard of the documents above; what a particular mandate produces is agreed at engagement. If a financing is in front of you, an early and confidential conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.