Tobacco Shops Seeking Loan in Istanbul

- Seeking senior secured lender on a $1.5 million short-term commodity trade finance facility for a Turkish tobacco trader. - Each deal amount is approx $750,000 on shipment of tobacco leaves from India to Antwerp, Belgium. - Up to 2 deals may overlap but cannot exceed $1.5 million in aggregate. - Each deal is for a total duration of approx 60 – 90 days and is on an uncommitted, transactional basis and continuously recurs. - Each deal is comprised of 2 phases. First phase is voyage finance from India load port to a warehouse in Antwerp, Belgium for a duration of up to 60 days. - Second phase is warehouse finance in Antwerp, Belgium for a duration of up to 30 days. - Shipped tobacco is pledged as collateral to the Lenders. - Senior secured lender to provide 85% of each loan. - The company will provide 15% of each loan as a junior secured lender and document the agreements and book/administer the loans. Senior lender interest rate is SOFR + 12%pa. Current SOFR is approx 5.35%pa. Thus, all in rate is 17.35% pa (=12% + 5.35%) currently. - There will be a floor SOFR of 3.5% pa. - Established 16 years ago and headquartered in Istanbul, Turkey, promoter is a tobacco producer and trader. The company has over 120 employees of which 30 employees are in Turkey. - There are 100 clients, globally located but most of them are in Europe. - The company has 7 years of strong relationship with the Indian supplier, ITC. Purchases 4 - 5 shipments from ITC every year with satisfactory performance on quality and quantity. - Company's total assets are $4.5 million, and annual sales are $2.8 million. - The promoter is New York based and is currently in Tokyo, the business is headquartered in Istanbul.