Problematico:

Un problema comune nel mondo degli affari è:

• dal punto di vista dell'investitore: come investire per un breve periodo di tempo e realizzare un profitto significativo?
• dal punto di vista dell'imprenditore o dell'azienda: come finanziare una grande operazione e sbarazzarsi degli investitori subito dopo?

More often than not, when acquiring or merging, it is possible to use the cash of the target company to pay off investors.

Thus, transaction financing answers both these needs allowing the investor to make a quick profit in case of successful transaction.

Definizione

A Fundraising Incubator is a company financing corporate transactions such as a merger, an acquisition, a securities private placement or an initial public offering (IPO) against an equity participation and a put option on this equity participation to the issuer itself.

The put option, issued by the same issuer as the equity participation, ensures the investor that, in case of success of the transaction, it can resell this participation to the issuer immediately after.

Today, transaction financing is the exclusive privilege of all investment banks who make huge profits therefrom.

Objection

One could wonder why not a simple loan?

The main reason is that under most jurisdictions, loans are limited to a certain interest rate percentage, called the usury rate, generally less or far less than 25%. In Switzerland, the federal law limits this usury rate at 15% and makes any interest rate set above that limit unlawful and thus, not payable!

Gli investitori di solito desiderano un rendimento più elevato sul loro investimento, poiché qualsiasi investimento di finanziamento delle transazioni rappresenta un grado significativo di rischio almeno dal punto di vista della percezione del mercato.

Risk of a Transaction Financing Investment

Il rischio legato a un investimento di finanziamento di una transazione è direttamente collegato alla probabilità di successo dell'operazione.

Therefore, as a rule of thumb, we can say that the transaction financing investment risk is directly linked to the quality of the agreements binding the parties to the transaction and to these parties’ willingness to execute the transaction properly.

Rules of Prudence

Le regole di base della prudenza in un investimento di finanziamento di transazioni sono le seguenti:

1. Commitment from both parties.
   Having a commitment from both parties to the transaction provides the safest conditions to the investment. However, this is rare and mostly impossible. Commonly, a transaction financing agreement is entered into between one party to the transaction and the representative of the investors.
2. Ridurre al minimo il tempo dell'investimento.
   Questa regola piuttosto semplice ha molte implicazioni, dalla logistica alle condizioni legali. Il rappresentante degli investitori, che deve essere un finanziere o un uomo d'affari ma non un avvocato, dovrebbe riunire i fondi su un conto sotto il suo controllo e verificare i consensi e la volontà delle parti a procedere.
3. Legal terms agreed before start.
   Have all the transaction (key) terms agreed upon before the financing takes place. The investor or his representative must ascertain that the parties are in full agreement on all (key) terms of the transaction.

   While the parties might not be able to bear the cost of all agreements drafting before the transaction financing takes place, they can surely produce a complete term sheet for each agreement needed for the transaction.

   Any party receiving the transaction financing can also take the commitment toward the investor that no other additional or new (key) term shall be required from the other party after the financing takes place, preventing thereby the classic last minute requirement that makes the transaction fail.