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 31-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 one slide? | That one slide says what the company does, what drives the cash and what the money is for |
| Transaction and key terms | What is asked for, on what terms? | That sources equal uses and opening leverage sits inside the covenant |
| The business | Do the customers stay? | That concentration and tenure are stated, with the contracts behind them |
| The market | Is the demand durable? | That each market figure is sourced and the company’s position is evidenced |
| Growth case | What carries the forecast? | The investment programme, the EBITDA it adds each year, and whether the covenant case relies on it |
| 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 the order book |
| Financial performance | How good are the earnings? | Three years of actuals, and each add-back from reported to adjusted EBITDA with its evidence |
| Debt, covenants and downside | What protects the lender if the plan misses? | That the downside stays inside the covenants, the security covers the debt and each risk has a mitigant |
| Process and lenders | What happens next? | That the timetable holds and every data-room workstream is populated |
| Appendix | Where do the numbers come from? | That every figure traces to a model exhibit |
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 £10.5m refinancing — so the two can be read side by side as a pack. No real company, no live mandate, and nothing in it is an offer or advice.