Harvest Small Business Finance, LLC Closes Its Fifth Securitization of Owner-Occupied First-Lien SBA 7(a) Unguaranteed Portions - $95.2 Million of Offered Notes Rated by Morningstar DBRSDecember 05, 2024
December 05, 2024
LAGUNA HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Harvest Small Business Finance, LLC (“HSBF”) (http://www.harvestsbf.com), one of the top non-bank originators of SBA 7(a) loans, closed its fifth securitization of the unguaranteed portions of primarily first-lien SBA 7(a) CRE loans. Performance Trust Capital Partners, LLC acted as sole structuring agent and East West Markets, LLC acted as co-manager for the $95.2 million Harvest SBA Loan Trust 2024-1 transaction (“HSLT 2024-1”).
HSLT 2024-1 is only the second REMIC structured securitization to be issued in the SBA space. Harvest utilized Morningstar DBRS, which assigned the ratings of A(low)(sf), BBB(low)(sf), and BB(sf) to the Class A, Class B, and Class C Notes, respectively.
HSBF leaders Adam Seery, Todd Massas and Jason Raefski stated the same message, “HSBF continues to outperform other lenders in its space. We owe this success to our commitment to making high quality commercial real estate loans to sound, well vetted businesses. Moreover, we pride ourselves on setting the standard for performance, pricing and creativity in the SBA securitization market.”
Deal Characteristics
Harvest SBA Loan Trust 2024-1 is Harvest‘s fifth SBA 7(a) securitization and the eighth Harvest issuance overall, including Harvest Commercial Capital. The deal structure features pro-rata payments to the Class A, Class B, and Class C Notes.
The transaction includes a 90-day prefunding period for up to an additional 20% of collateral. Once the 90-day prefunding period is complete, the transaction will have a static collateral pool. As of the October 31, 2024 cut-off date, the collateral consisted of the unguaranteed portions of 361 SBA 7(a) loans with an unguaranteed principal balance of $86.24 million, which represents approximately 25% of the full outstanding principal balance of the SBA 7(a) loans. The collateral pool has an average full loan balance of approximately $1.01 million and a weighted average remaining term of 271 months. The majority of the loans are monthly pay, with an adjustable interest rate based on the Prime Rate, and most of the pool consists of 25-year, fully-amortizing loans. The obligors have a weighted average FICO of 729 and the properties used to collateralize the loans are all commercial real estate with a weighted average original LTV of 77.3%. The weighted average time in business of the underlying businesses is approximately 18 years.
Investor Report
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Harvest Executes Multiple Securitizations of SBA 7(a) Unguaranteed Portions​​
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Harvest SBA Loan Trust 2024-1, December 2024
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$95.2 million Class A Notes rated A(low)(sf) by Morningstar DBRS
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Harvest SBA Loan Trust 2021-1, May of 2021
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$68.03 million Class A Notes rated BBB-by Kroll Bond Rating Agency
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Harvest SBA Loan Trust 2019-1, February 2020
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$34.92 million Class A Notes rated BBB-/BBB by Standard & Poor’s/Kroll Bond Rating Agency
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Harvest SBA Loan Trust 2018-1, August 2018
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$90.79 million Class A Notes rated BBB by Standard & Poor’s (with a subsequent rating of BBB+ from Kroll Bond Rating Agency)
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Harvest Has Executed Three Securitizations of SBA 504 and Conventional 1st TDs
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Harvest Commercial Capital Loan Trust 2024-1, June 2024
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Ratings and Funding: Morningstar DBRS assigned a AAA rating to the most senior certificates, with other classes rated from AA to B. The $218.5 million in offered certificates were oversubscribed, with $175 million committed initially and the remainder pre-funded over 90 days.
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Collateral and Loan Mix: The initial close included 114 small balance commercial mortgage loans, primarily for small businesses and secured by owner-occupied commercial real estate. The mix was 58% SBA 504, 37% Conventional, and 5% Non-Owner Occupied loans, with an average balance of $1.53 million and a 51.9% loan-to-value ratio.
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Investor and Leadership: The pool's weighted average FICO score was 748. The transaction involved 19 investors, led by Mizuho Americas with Baird as the joint bookrunner.
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Harvest Commercial Capital Loan Trust 2020-1, December 2020
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Kroll Bond Rating Agency rated the HCCLT 2020-1 transaction, with approximately 54% of the certificates (the Class A Certificates) rated AAA
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$112.60 million Classes M-1 through M-5 were rated AA down to B, with Classes M-6 and M-7 being unrated
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The securitization closed successfully despite a weak market for small business loan transactions due to the COVID-19 pandemic
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Harvest Commercial Capital Loan Trust 2019-1, November 2019​​
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Kroll Bond Rating Agency rated the HCCLT 2019-1 transaction, with approximately 65% of the certificates (the Class A Certificates) rated AAA
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​$267.00 million Classes M-1 through M-5 were rated AA down to B, with Classes M-6 and M-7 being unrated
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Harvest Separates From Competitors
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Senior/Seasoned Business Development Officers – Generally, Harvest BDOs are hired with at least 10 years (and normally much more) of experience underwriting and selling commercial real estate loans.
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Commercial RE Focused – While other lenders are bogged down looking at all small business products (equipment, working capital, business acquisitions, etc.), Harvest focuses 100% of our efforts on generating commercial real estate loans.
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Streamlined Processing – Not only does Harvest seek out the best BDOs, but we also hire best-in-class talent in the back office. This allows for efficient underwriting, thorough and accurate credit memoranda, and loan closers who can see “through the woods” to identify potential issues and provide solutions.
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Solution Oriented in Our Approach to Working with Clients – We are constantly looking for better ways to get from point A to point Z with our clients and to serve as a trusted advisor to our clients during the loan process.
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Family Environment – Our “secret sauce” is empowering our employees to take ownership of each loan request. This allows for a sense of pride among our employees. Everyone works as a team to accomplish our common goal of closing CRE loans.
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We understand that you cannot be high priced and slow!
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July 2015
Harvest is formed as a California limited liability company under the name BYL Small Business Finance, LLC
November 2015
The Receiver names Harvest as the winning bidder for the SB Capital Assets
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March 2016
Harvest closes its purchase of the SB Capital Assets, including the SBLC license
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April-June 2016
Harvest receives authorization from the SBA and from the California Department of Business Oversight to begin originating loans
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July 2016
Harvest originates its first loan!
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October 2016
The SBA awards Harvest with Preferred Lender Program (PLP) status, allowing Harvest to originate loans with an SBA guaranty without first submitting the loans to the SBA
May 2017
Harvest surpasses the $100 million mark in originations
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December 2017
Harvest closes on a $60 million senior warehouse facility with Capital One
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August 2018
Harvest closes its first securitization of the unguaranteed portions of SBA 7(a) loans, the $90.79 million Harvest SBA Loan Trust 2018-1 transaction
June 2019
Harvest surpasses the $500 million mark in originations
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December 2019
Harvest Surpasses $1 billion in 7a, 504 and Conventional loan closings
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February 2020
Harvest closes the $34.92 million Harvest SBA Loan Trust 2019-1 securitization
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April-August 2020
Harvest participates in the first round of the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) and originates approximately $1.2 billion of PPP loans
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May 2020
Harvest closes on a $50 million senior warehouse facility with East West Bank to replace the Capital One facility (this facility has since been upsized to $75 million)
September 2020
Harvest originates $59 million, its highest volume month to date
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September 2020
Harvest is the 10th largest SBA lender in the country for SBA fiscal year 2020 (ended September 30, 2020)
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December 2020
Harvest originates $46.7 million, its second highest month to date, which pushes Harvest originations to over $300 million for calendar year 2020
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Jan–July 2021
Harvest participates in the second round of the PPP program and originates over 607,000 loans for approximately $10.6 billion, making Harvest the top PPP lender in the country by number of loans, and the 2nd largest lender by volume
May 2021
Harvest surpasses the $1 billion mark in 7(a) originations
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September 2021
Harvest is the 8th largest SBA lender in the country for SBA fiscal year 2021 (ended September 30, 2021)
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June 2024
$218.5 million Securitization of SBA 504 and Conventional
real estate loans
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December 2021
Harvest originates $383.6 million of SBA 7(a) loans during calendar year 2021, its highest volume year to date
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December 2024
Harvest closes $95.2 million securitization of SBA 7(a) unguaranteed portions, its fifth securitization to date.
May 2022
Harvest Surpasses $2 billion in 7a, 504 and Conventional loan closings
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September 2022
Harvest 11th Largest SBA 7(a) lender, 6th Largest 504 lender in America
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