Crown Partners LP (“Crown”), a leading specialty finance company, announced the closing of a $35 million asset-based revolving credit facility for Direct Source Seafood (the “Company”).  Proceeds from the financing will be used to repay existing indebtedness and provide for ongoing working capital purposes. 

Crown served as agent for the senior secured credit facility, syndicated with IDB Bank®.

Founded in 2010, Direct Source Seafood is a privately-owned company and a major crab and shrimp importer and wholesaler. They distribute product in retail-ready packaging to food service providers, restaurants, and retailers, and sell bulk quantities to other distributors. They are also one of the top companies importing and managing private label shrimp programs for both large and medium size retailers, and food service companies across the country. Their current lender was exiting the asset-based lending market and referred them to Veritas Financial Partners.

“Crown executed within an extremely tight time frame to deliver exactly what they said they would,” said Roman Tkachenko, CEO of Direct Source Seafood. “Often, lenders are unwilling to take the time to understand the nuances of our industry and therefore try to limit our ability to take advantage of attractive business opportunities. Crown did the work and delivered the flexibility we needed.”

Matt Owings, Vice President, who sourced and led the transaction for Crown, said: “I knew the company’s owners and was pleased Veritas could provide the certainty and tailored solution they needed to move forward.” 

Tony Liobis, Crown’s Vice Chairman and Chief Credit Officer, helped blend the tailored facility to the client’s needs. “We were able to allow for significant accounts receivable concentrations for key customers, a higher reliance on inventory as a percentage of the loan, and advances against in-transit inventory as well as lending against inventory in cold storage warehouses across the U.S. These factors resulted in maximum working capital for Direct Source Seafood.”