Structuring Incremental Loan Facilities: Key Terms for Lenders and Borrowers

Incremental facilities allow borrowers to add new term loans or additional revolving commitments under an existing credit facility, usually subject to a hard dollar cap and/or leverage limits and other financial tests. Once the province of large cap deals, incremental loan facilities can be found in many middle market credit agreements.

Incremental facilities are advantageous for borrowers because they require only the consent of the lenders providing the additional commitments and require less documentation and fewer closing conditions. Existing lenders, however, may find themselves sharing collateral and payment priority with more aggressive (and less regulated) incremental lenders.

Lenders typically want a most favored nation (MFN) clause that provides existing lenders with interest rate protection. Borrowers will counter with short sunset provisions and other exceptions when lenders insist on an MFN clause. Incremental equivalent facilities may be incurred that allow the borrower to raise additional debt outside the credit agreement, often to fund acquisitions.

Listen as our authoritative panel of commercial finance practitioners discusses current market trends in the use of incremental loan facilities and key provisions of concern to the lender and the borrower.