By late February, Bank of America Business Capital, the asset-But even more than the relationships are the clients and deals he based lending arm of Bank of America, was ready to launch its has been active in. “You see so many different situations where you can new Business Finance Division, which it announced on April 7, provide help with the experience that we have in our group, and make a targeting the smaller middle-market sector. LaSalle veteran, Bruce Denby, meaningful difference in some of these companies, so it’s always some was appointed to lead the new division as president, along with previous thing interesting and new every day.”

LaSalle co-workers Bob Corsentino, head of portfolio management and Yet another aspect that keeps him excited about the ABL industry Bert Kidd, head of underwriting. Brian Wright, a seasoned veteran of – the fact that he knows the people he serves and those that work Bank of America Business Capital, was brought in to head the sales and marketing effort.

Denby has been with the same company his whole career, moving along with the mergers and acquisitions that are common in this industry. First, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Ag/Economics from the University of Illinois in Champaign. After graduation, he headed to Exchange National Bank in 1984, and later earned an M.B.A. in Finance at De Paul University.

In the beginning, he worked in the agri-business group at Exchange, which was part of asset-based lending. After about a year, the company decided to get out of the ag business, and Denby was asked to join the ABL group. LaSalle Bank acquired Exchange Bank in 1990, as part of ABN Amro. Then last fall, Bank of America acquired ABN Amro’s LaSalle Bank stake.

“I’ve been part of the same organization for almost 24 years now,” Denby says. And he’s not the only one who’s stayed for the long haul, and has come along into the Business Finance Division. For him, the reason he was led into the industry and the one that keeps him staying within it is simple: the relationships developed over time. It’s All About the Relationships “We’ve had so many clients here that we’ve had for 15-20 years… and if you combine that with the associates I work with here … I’m dealing with an extended family.” He notes that two of his co-workers within the Business Finance Division – Corsentino and Joe Fudacz – started within a year of him at Exchange.

Growing up in a small town, it was no easy transition to come to the big city of Chicago. But, he soon found that no matter where you go, there’s always a common denominator to focus on in meeting new people. “The neat thing about this business is the fact that even though it is in banking, it is really a blue-collar business. It’s a lot of neat people who roll up their sleeves everyday and attack the problems not your traditional bankers… And our industry still has those kinds of people all over the place. That’s the part that I identify with the most people that are approachable and solution-oriented. ” We’re there when the clients need us the most … we need to be creative and find a good solution for them so that they can get to the point in time when they get things turned around.”

“The great thing has been that you see the same people day in and day out in our organization, and we’ve had a client base that’s been very consistent so it’s kind of like having a second family here. You get really comfortable with that but, at the same time, it’s exciting that you can provide solutions to customers that really need you at that point in time. We’re there when the clients need us the most; they may be down on their luck a little bit and struggling a little bit and we need to be creative and find a good solution for them so that they can get to the point in time when they get things turned around.”

Business Finance Division

According to Denby, when Bank of America acquired LaSalle, one of the main goals for those working with middle-market customers was to ensure that, “we were able to deliver the product in a consistent manner with the way we delivered it before. And in order to do that, we felt that it needed to run through similar channels as to how it did before…. Our group is largely a LaSalle legacy group that’s been doing this type of lending for 25 years plus, but we’re able to take advantage of the Bank of America Business Capital products and services that had a lot more breadth and a lot more geography than we had.”

And the transition was minimal. The division was ready for business the moment the announcement was made. “We were really open for business throughout the whole period of time while the new structure was being determined… We had all the pieces in place, it was just a matter of announcing the structure,” Denby explains.

The Business Finance Division covers all sectors from manufacturing to wholesalers/distributors to service industries on a national level. The group is focused on the smaller middle-market area, covering between $ 5 million to $ 25 million in commitment size.

Although the main territory for the division is within the United States, Denby notes, “we do have the capabilities to go into Canada as well as internationally. We have an international group based in Europe, which allows us to do things for our clients over there as well.”

Expanded Product Offerings

As far as the products the new division will offer its clients, Denby says much remains the same as far as the traditional asset-based lending offerings. However, “we do have the ability to do stretch pieces or over advances with companies that have established capabilities to service that debt.” The major difference, especially to former LaSalle clients, is the expanded offering of products. What Bank of America Business Capital did was to look at all of LaSalle’s products and all of Bank of America’s, and then combine the best of each to offer the client base. For example, Bank of America added a Cash Pro system for cash management that was popular with LaSalle clients, and the Business Finance Division can offer this and other Bank of America products such as the 401k, and thepayroll and depository accounts offerings. “We haven’t seen liquidity dry up, the lenders are still out there and they’re still being very competitive in bidding for transactions.”

Lean Structure, Complete Coverage

Although the management structure remains “lean,” with Denby, Corsentino, Kidd and Wright, the group makes use of established business development officers already covering Bank of America Business Capital’s territory. Within just the Business Finance Division, there are ten national business development officers selling the division’s products. “Bank of America Business apital has elected to allow all of our BDOs to sell the whole suite of products that would be offered to clients seeking a $ 5 million loan or a $ 2 billion loan, so we really have 30 BDOs selling the complete array of products throughout the country.” The division has offices in Portland and Philadelphia as well as Michigan and Chicago with client managers and client team leaders that have a portfolio of clients, Denby says. “That gives us geographical coverage from a standpoint of having actual people on the ground servicing clients in these regions.”

OF NOTE…

The division

The Business Finance Division was instituted due to Bank of America’s acquisition of LaSalle Bank, and the company’s wish to focus on the smaller middle-market sector. There are ten BDOs within Business Finance selling the division’s expanded product offerings.

The people

Bruce Denby was appointed to lead the new division as president, with Bob Corsentino, head of portfolio management; Bert Kidd, head of underwriting; and Brian Wright, head of sales/marketing.

The focus

The group is focused on the smaller middle-market area, covering between $ 5MM to $ 25MM in commitment size. The Business Finance Group also works with Bank of America Business Capital to offer expanded service to customers, which allows a commitment size from $ 25MM to $ 2B.

Standing Out From the Rest

In the ABL arena, even offering an expanded base of products can make it hard to rise above the competition, but Denby says the division has three things going for it to keep ahead of the rest.

“We have really seasoned ABL lenders combined with a local presence and the great breadth of products that are specifically aligned for the middle market,” he explains. Because many of the company’s lenders have been there for many years, “they are very knowledgeable of the organization and their clients, so the clients aren’t in a position where they have to re-train their loan officer every year or two… And that allows our lenders to act fairly early and quickly to changes that are occurring in their clients’ companies and be proactive in helping them solve their problems versus being reactive.

“Now we have the Bank of America organization behind us and the breadth of products and services that our clients either didn’t have at that high a level or didn’t have at all… And the fact that we are able to provide all of the products and services that will meet our clients’ specific smaller middle-market solutions … I think it’s the combination of those pieces that makes us unique.”

Closing Deals Even in an Uncertain Market

And in these uncertain market times, it is even more important to know who you are, what you can do for your clients and how you can do it better than everyone else. But as Denby sees it, 2008 “is shaping up to be a really strong year for us, and, I think, a lot of asset-based lenders out there.”

He adds that in the larger part of the market, there has been difficulty from a syndication standpoint of finding the right number of lenders to close transactions. “But, our piece of the market hasn’t experienced that. There are definitely some sectors out there that are really weak right now and there are opportunities within those sectors…

But in the smaller middle-market area,” Denby says, “we haven’t seen liquidity dry up, the lenders are still out there and they’re still being very competitive in bidding for transactions.”

He notes that when the economy softens, potential customers will begin to move away from commercial lending into asset-based lending, due to banks and other financial institutions having capital and other such problems. “They get concerned about their bank and its performance. That’s typically been the best part of the cycle for us in bringing in clients that we can keep for 10-15-20 years because we’re there when they need it most. That’s probably the largest defining event that I see this year in the market,” Denby says.

But the Business Finance Division remains focused no matter what the economy is doing. “Our vision here is to really grow the organization in this segment.” Like the company’s philosophy, which is to be the most admired by its customers and its associates, Denby says that’s what the new group is striving to do. “I think if you take really good care of your customers and really good care of the people that you work with, they’ll take care of everything else and make it happen. That’s the philosophy we had coming in and that’s a shared philosophy that Bank of America has taught us well. We just want to bring that out to the marketplace and continue to grow with it.” abfJ