GE Capital, Franchise Finance Provides Imvescor with $37.1 Million Credit Facility for Refinancing

Press release:

07 September 2012

GE Capital, Franchise Finance Provides Imvescor with $37.1 Million Credit Facility for Refinancing

 

MONTREAL (QC), Sept. 7, 2012 - GE Capital, Canada’s Franchise Finance business announced today that it has provided Imvescor Restaurant Group Inc. (IRG) with a $37.1 million term loan. IRG will use the funds to refinance all of its outstanding secured debt facilities, including senior loans from GE Capital. The new debt structure also provides IRG with additional flexibility to pay down its outstanding subordinated debt.

Headquartered in Moncton, New Brunswick, IRG owns franchised and corporate restaurants throughout Canada under four brands: Pizza Delight®, operating primarily in Atlantic Canada in the family/mid-scale segment; Mikes® and Scores®, operating primarily in Quebec in the family and casual dining segments and the take-out and delivery segments; and Bâton Rouge®, operating in Quebec, Ontario and Nova Scotia in the casual dining segment.

"Throughout our association with GE Capital, we’ve been impressed by their understanding of and commitment to the restaurant industry,” said Denis Richard, president and chief executive officer of IRG. “GE Capital helps us create shareholder value by providing a solid financial foundation that allows us to concentrate our energies on executing our strategic initiatives."

"We’ve financed more than $1.1 billion in restaurant transactions in Canada over the last 10 years, through all the market cycles," said Edward Khediguian, senior vice president of GE Capital’s Franchise Finance business in Canada. "We combine our industry knowledge, expertise, and financial capabilities to provide customers with customized and flexible credit facilities that help them concentrate on growing their businesses.”

About GE Capital, Franchise Finance GE Capital, Franchise Finance is a leading lender to the franchise finance market, serving the restaurant and hospitality industries. We specialize in financing regional and national restaurant businesses of all sizes across the country. Over the past 10 years, we’ve financed more than 700 restaurant customers with upwards of 1,500 property locations, lending more than $1.1 billion to the Canadian restaurant space. In the Canadian hotel market, we provide financing for nationally known brands in the limited and select-service segments of the industry.

With more than 20 offices throughout Canada, GE Capital (gecapital.ca) offers a wide variety of financial products and services to address commercial financing and fleet management needs in all phases of a business' lifecycle. From equipment finance to working capital and growth financing to large asset-based and restructuring loans, we apply our wealth of industry expertise and develop custom solutions for your company. Some of the industry sectors we specialize in include transportation, construction, healthcare, agriculture, forestry, manufacturing, oil and gas, wholesale and retail, and restaurant and hotel franchise.

GE Capital offers consumers and businesses around the globe an array of financial products and services. For more information, visit gecapital.com or follow company news via Twitter (@GECapital).

GE (NYSE: GE) works on things that matter. The best people and the best technologies taking on the toughest challenges. Finding solutions in energy, health and home, transportation and finance. Building, powering, moving and curing the world. Not just imagining. Doing. GE works. For more information, visit the company's website at www.ge.com.

Mortgage Shopping, Made Easier - Economic View

The following is an excerpt from an article in 

The New York Times
Sunday, August 19, 2012

Mortgage Shopping, Made Easier - Economic View

By RICHARD H. THALER

MORTGAGE rates are very low, but some people who could qualify for cheap refinancing are procrastinating. That may be because shopping for a mortgage can make root canal surgery seem fun.

Choosing a home and mortgage is probably the largest financial decision that most Americans ever make. Yet perhaps because the loan process is so onerous and opaque, many take the first quote they are offered. In fact, research shows that people typically spend more time shopping for a car or vacation than for a mortgage, and I suspect that many families spend as much or more time picking out a microwave oven.

Shirking on mortgage shopping is a costly type of sloth. Other research, done for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, finds that most borrowers could save several thousand dollars by getting just one more quote.

Now is a propitious time for raising these issues because the new Consumer Finance Protection Bureau is undertaking a Congressionally mandated revision of some disclosure forms that are required by law. (Disclosure: Along with John G. Lynch Jr., a professor at the University of Colorado, I met with bureau staff members last month to discuss this proposal from a behavioral science perspective.)

The bureau’s goals should be to make mortgage shopping easier and more efficient, and to make the industry more transparent and competitive, all while reducing the kinds of bad loans that helped create the financial crisis.

One form is of particular importance. It’s the “loan estimate,” a paper copy of which must go to borrowers within three days of application for a loan.

The bureau’s research team did extensive testing to decide what data should be included on this new form. It proposed a three-page version containing more than 100 pieces of information, including the interest rate, charges for various services and whether features like prepayment penalties or balloon payments were part of the deal.

For more, visit www.nytimes.com.