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How This Works

Four steps to a capital structure that fits.

Here's exactly how we get there.

01

Analyze

We map how your business is actually capitalized today, not how it looked when the current structure was put in place. That means the real estate, the equipment, the bank relationship, the debt schedule, and where each of those is quietly costing you flexibility.

  • What's owned outright versus financed, and what that equity is doing for you today
  • Where your current lender relationship fits your business now, not five years ago
  • What triggered the need to look at this in the first place: growth, a bank event, a transition, or a structural mismatch that's been building quietly
02

Qualify

Not every capital structure fits every business, and not every instrument fits every capital structure. We identify which sources of capital and which investor or lender types actually make sense for your business, before you spend time or credibility finding out the hard way.

This is where most owners either overpay for capital that doesn't fit or burn a bank relationship pursuing something that was never going to close.

03

Structure

We build the capital stack and transaction structure around the actual problem, not the closest available product. That can mean a straightforward bank facility, an equipment lease, a sale-leaseback of owned real estate, or a structured capital solution outside conventional bank lending. The instrument is a conclusion, not a starting assumption.

04

Execute

We manage it through to close, working directly with your existing bank and counterparties rather than handing you a recommendation and stepping back. Advice is easy to give. Execution is the part that actually changes your capital structure.

Where The Capital Comes From

Instrument-agnostic, by design.

We're not a real estate brokerage that only sees sale-leasebacks, or a bank that only sees conventional debt. Diagnosing your capital structure first means the instrument that ends up fitting could be any of these, or a combination.

Bank Financing

Conventional Bank Financing

Sometimes the right answer is a better-structured relationship with a bank, not a move away from one. We work directly with banking partners to restructure or place conventional commercial and industrial credit facilities.

Equipment

Equipment Finance & Leasing

For businesses where equipment, not real estate, is the trapped or mismatched asset, we structure financing and leasing solutions sized to how the equipment is actually used and depreciated.

Real Estate

Sale-Leaseback

When owned real estate is sitting on the balance sheet doing nothing for cash flow or growth, a sale-leaseback can convert that equity into deployable capital while keeping the business in place, on terms it controls.

Structured Capital

Non-Bank Solutions

When a business doesn't fit a conventional bank box, whether from timing, structure, or complexity, we bring in structured capital sources built for exactly that situation.

A Closer Look

How we underwrite each instrument, not just place it.

Whichever piece of the capital stack ends up fitting your business, we evaluate it the same way: against its true cost of capital and its long-term effect on your balance sheet, not against a sales script.

Sale-Leaseback

Most sale-leasebacks get priced the way a real estate sale gets priced: appraise the property, quote a cap rate, done. We underwrite it the way a lender underwrites debt, because economically, that's what it is. The cap rate is effectively an interest rate, the implied cost of capital on the equity being converted out of the property, and we compare that cost against conventional debt, equipment financing, or leaving the equity in place before recommending it.

The lease itself functions like a loan agreement. Term, escalations, and net responsibilities behave like covenants and amortization, and they show up the same way on your balance sheet and in how a bank or investor reads your credit profile afterward.

Conventional Bank Financing

A bank relationship that made sense five years ago doesn't automatically still fit. We evaluate an existing facility the same way we'd evaluate a new one: effective cost of capital, covenant package, borrowing base mechanics, and whether the structure still matches how the business actually generates cash today. Sometimes the fix is a better-negotiated version of the relationship you already have, not a new lender entirely.

Equipment Finance & Leasing

A lease rate and a loan rate aren't directly comparable on their face, so we translate both into the same terms: effective cost of capital, amortization schedule against the equipment's actual useful life, and whether the accounting treatment helps or hurts the balance sheet picture a lender or investor will see next. The goal is matching the financing structure to how the asset is actually used, not to whichever offer arrived first.

Non-Bank Structured Capital

Structured capital typically costs more than a bank facility, and it should only get used when that premium is justified by what it enables. We underwrite the full cost, including any covenants, prepayment terms, or equity-linked features, against the alternative of waiting or restructuring existing debt, so it's used as a deliberate bridge to a stronger position rather than a default fallback.

This is general information about how we evaluate these instruments, not financial, tax, or legal advice specific to your business. Every transaction should be reviewed by your own advisors before proceeding.

Who's Behind This

Operators, not consultants.

Cobalt is led by principals who spent decades inside commercial banking, credit, private equity, and institutional asset management, actually structuring these transactions, not consulting on them from the sidelines. That firsthand experience is what lets us spot exactly where a capital structure has stopped fitting the business, and know exactly who to bring in to fix it, whether that's a bank, an equipment lessor, a sale-leaseback counterparty, or a structured capital source. We're not here to hand you a recommendation and walk away. We're here to get the deal done.

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