One of the questions we hear most often in lower mid-market deals is always the same: “The business is a good fit, the numbers add up… but where do I get the financing in time to close?” It's one of the points where the most processes stall or fall through altogether — and that's why we're launching Deale Credit: the first LBO financing line fully integrated into a digital platform for buying and selling businesses in Spain.
The initiative launches with a first facility of €2 million, funded by the company's current shareholders, and is advised by Intermoney Asset Backed Finance and the law firm FILS.
What is Deale Credit
Deale Credit is a private debt vehicle focused on asset-backed finance. It offers senior secured loans to finance acquisitions of companies sourced on the Deale platform itself. In practice: if a buyer finds a company on Deale that they want to acquire, they can finance part of the price with Deale Credit without leaving the ecosystem, shortening timelines and increasing closing certainty.
It's not a traditional banking product or a conventional private equity fund. It's a piece designed specifically for one particular layer of LBO financing in SME deals: up to 30% of the acquisition price, with a maximum amount of €300,000 and a target term of four years.
How it works: the structure step by step
Deale Credit's structure follows the classic SME LBO model, with one important feature: 100% of the acquired company's shares are pledged as collateral in favor of Deale Credit. This reduces the risk of the loan and makes it possible to offer competitive terms in a segment (sub-€300k, local mid-market) where conventional banks tend to be slow to move.
In short:
- Deale Credit provides between €100,000 and €300,000 to the NewCo / BidCo (the buyer's acquisition vehicle) as a senior secured loan.
- The NewCo combines that financing with its equity and pays the upfront price to the target.
- Once the acquisition is complete, 100% of the target's shares are pledged as collateral in favor of Deale Credit, together with the other lenders (minimum 51%).
Key terms
One of the most attractive features of the product is that the loan is a bullet loan: during its four-year life, only interest is paid, and the principal is repaid in full at maturity. This frees the buyer from having to use cash flow to pay down debt during the integration period and while executing the business plan — significant relief for deals where value creation depends on reinvesting in the acquired company, carrying out complementary acquisitions (build-ups), or preparing a refinancing later on. In practice, the bullet format makes the deal more viable from day one and significantly improves the DSCR (debt service coverage ratio) compared with an equivalent amortizing loan.
The most important investment criterion is leverage ≤ 3.0x (total debt / post-transaction EBITDA). This means Deale Credit focuses on companies with moderate post-closing leverage — financially sound businesses with recurring cash generation and a proven ability to service debt. It's financing to support well-structured deals, not aggressive leverage.
The target approval time is 30 days from receipt of complete information (historical accounts N-4 to N+4, the buyer's due diligence, and possible confirmatory due diligence by Deale Credit). In deals where the buyer arrives with the information already prepared, this means financing is no longer the bottleneck in the process.
Why it makes sense to launch it now
We explain the market context in detail in our analysis of the Spanish mid-market, but when it comes specifically to financing, three dynamics are converging:
- Bank selectivity. Banks are applying stricter criteria to acquisition financing, especially for small and midsize deals where the bank's return doesn't justify the structuring work. For many deals with €1M–€5M in equity value, traditional banks simply aren't the fastest option.
- Demand for more flexible structures. Buyers and sellers increasingly ask for financing structures that match the real pace of deals, not the calendar of risk committees.
- The succession challenge. A significant share of Spanish SMEs will go through ownership transfers in the coming years — 16% of business owners will reach retirement age before 2030. This multiplies the volume of potential deals, but also the need for closing certainty: a retiring seller doesn't want to find out three months after signing the LOI that the buyer's financing isn't coming through.
Deale Credit addresses all three at once: it's integrated into the platform, with timelines and criteria designed for the segment, and it removes one of the usual sources of friction at closing.
First deal: SPLASTIC
As its first closed deal, Deale Credit took part in the acquisition of SPLASTIC, a plastic injection molding company. The deal, led by a strategic buyer, was completed in 280 days.
The financing provided by Deale Credit represented 16.7% of the enterprise value — that is, an intermediate layer between the buyer's equity and the other sources of financing. Enough to speed up closing, optimize the use of the buyer's resources, and allow the deal to move at the pace of the market.
Who is Deale Credit for?
Deale Credit is an especially good fit for deals with this profile:
- Strategic or financial buyers who want to acquire a company in the Spanish lower mid-market.
- Deal sizes of roughly €500,000 to €3 million in enterprise value (where a loan of up to €300k covers a meaningful layer of the price).
- Financially sound target companies, with positive EBITDA and post-closing leverage that can be kept at or below 3.0x total debt / EBITDA.
- Deals that need to close faster and where a fast financing process makes the difference between closing and falling through.
If your deal doesn't meet these criteria, there are still options: we have a guide on how to get financing to buy a business with a broader overview of alternatives (seller financing, mezzanine debt, search funds, etc.).
Next steps
Deale Credit focuses exclusively on deals sourced through the Deale platform. That means the first step, if you're interested, is to identify the company you want to acquire among those available on Deale. From there, the financing process is built into the deal workflow itself.
For sellers, the takeaway is also positive: buyers who come with Deale Credit as part of their structure bring greater closing certainty to the process, which tends to translate into smoother negotiations and more predictable timelines.
Deale Credit is a Deale product aimed exclusively at professional clients in accordance with applicable regulations. The information in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a binding offer of financing. All terms are subject to analysis of the deal, due diligence, and internal approval
