Citadel RidgeCommercial finance and capital advisory
307-452-7831 Send the file
307-452-7831info@citadel-ridge.com5830 E 2nd St, Ste 7000, Casper, WY 82609
HomeFirmWork product

Work product

A fixed fee buys documents. Here is what they look like.

Every advisory mandate at Citadel Ridge produces a defined set of documents that are yours regardless of which lender funds, which buyer bids, or whether you take any offer at all. The tables of contents below show the structure of each 1. Scope for a given engagement is set in the mandate document after qualification; the outlines here are representative, not a promise of any particular content or outcome.

Send the file The 4 mandates

The documents

6 documents, 1 standard.

Each 1 is written as if a lender, a buyer, or a regulator will read it, because 1 of them will. Numbers appear in the client's copy only.

Document 01 / Refinance and Placement Engagements

Position audit and true cost model

Every advance position the business carries, documented from source and modeled to its true annualized cost, with the payoff order sequenced for maximum monthly relief per dollar deployed.

  1. 1Position schedule: funder, contract date, purchased amount, payback, remittance, frequency, balance confirmed with the funder, UCC filing status
  2. 2Remittance analysis: daily and weekly debits against deposits, by month, from the bank statements
  3. 3True cost model: effective annualized cost of each position at its remaining term, and of the stack as a whole
  4. 4Payoff sequencing: the order in which positions are retired and the monthly relief each step produces
  5. 5Payoff letter register: balances requested, received and reconciled, with dates
  6. 6Exhibits: contracts, statements, funder correspondence
Document 02 / All engagements

Credit memorandum

The underwriting package a lender reads first, prepared to the standard the lender's own credit committee would use, so the file arrives answering questions rather than raising them.

  1. 1Transaction summary: request, use of funds, proposed structure, sources and uses
  2. 2The business: history, ownership, management, operations, customers and concentration
  3. 3Financial analysis: 3 years of statements spread, trailing 12 months, interim results, adjusted earnings with support
  4. 4Bank statement analysis: deposits, balances, NSF and overdraft history, existing debits
  5. 5Debt schedule and collateral: every obligation, lien position, collateral coverage
  6. 6Cash flow and repayment: debt service coverage on the proposed facility, downside cases
  7. 7Risks and mitigants, written before the lender writes them
  8. 8Exhibits and document index
Document 03 / Placement, Exit and Enterprise Engagements

Deal structure memorandum

Prepared with the client's CPA before any term sheet or letter of intent is signed. The structure, its tax and cash consequences, and the alternatives that were considered and rejected.

  1. 1Objective and constraints set by ownership
  2. 2Capital structure today and after closing: senior, subordinated, equity, guarantees
  3. 3Competing proposals compared on the full cost of each, not the headline rate
  4. 4Covenants, reporting, prepayment and guarantee terms, with the negotiating position on each
  5. 5Tax and accounting considerations, reviewed with the CPA
  6. 6Net proceeds and cash flow after closing, base and downside
  7. 7Recommendation and the record of alternatives considered
Document 04 / Exit and Enterprise Engagements

Confidential information memorandum

The institutional document a buyer reads after the NDA. Built from the financial recast and the earnings quality workpapers, with an anonymous teaser prepared from it for first contact.

  1. 1Executive summary and the investment case
  2. 2The company: history, services, facilities, licenses, people
  3. 3Market and competitive position
  4. 4Customers, contracts and payers, with concentration disclosed
  5. 5Financial summary: recast statements, adjusted earnings, working capital, capital expenditures
  6. 6Growth: initiatives underway and the capital each requires
  7. 7Transaction: what is offered, the process, and the timetable
  8. 8Appendices: management biographies, organizational chart, data room index
Document 05 / Placement, Exit and Enterprise Engagements

Data room index

An indexed, diligence ready data room, maintained before the first counterparty conversation so that no question arrives without a document already filed against it.

  1. 1Corporate: formation documents, ownership, minutes, good standing
  2. 2Financial: statements, tax returns, bank statements, general ledger extracts, budgets
  3. 3Debt and liens: agreements, payoff letters, UCC searches, guarantees
  4. 4Contracts: customers, vendors, leases, licenses, insurance
  5. 5People: organizational chart, compensation, benefits, employment agreements
  6. 6Legal and compliance: litigation, regulatory filings, permits
  7. 7Assets: equipment schedules, appraisals, titles, real estate
  8. 8Q and A log: every question asked, the answer, and the document that answered it
Document 06 / All engagements

The mandate document

1 document sets scope and fee after qualification. It is written to be read in full before it is signed, and it says what the fee buys and what it does not.

  1. 1Parties, the engagement, and the outcome it is built to produce
  2. 2Scope: the documents and services included, by phase
  3. 3Fee: fixed, paid at execution by wire; what it purchases and that it purchases no result
  4. 4What the firm is not: not a lender, law firm, accounting firm, broker dealer or investment adviser
  5. 5Client responsibilities: documents, access, decisions, counsel and CPA
  6. 6Confidentiality, data handling and the use of work product after the engagement
  7. 7Term, termination and what survives
  8. 8Disclosures and acknowledgments

Representative outlines. The documents delivered under a specific engagement, and their contents, are set by the mandate document for that engagement. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, accounting or investment advice, an offer of financing, or a guarantee that any facility will be placed or any transaction closed.

Why documents

Price discipline comes from the file, not from the pitch.

The other side of the table underwrites paper.

A lender prices what it can verify. A buyer pays for what survives diligence. Every discount an owner absorbs at a term sheet or a letter of intent traces back to a question the file could not answer at the moment it was asked. The work product above exists to answer those questions in advance, in the format the reader already uses, so that the competing process is a comparison of offers rather than a negotiation about facts.

That is also why the fee is fixed and paid at execution. The documents are the deliverable. They are yours whether the first lender funds or the fourth, and whether you transact this year or hold the file for the next one.

The method Refinance Engagement Exit Engagement

Start with the file

A straight read within 2 business days.

Send the basics through the intake form: what the file supports, what is missing, and the next step if there is one. If we are not the right desk for it, we say so.

Send the file Call 307-452-7831