Banking and finance · Banking fee-earner, borrower-side in-house counsel, finance director
Review the covenants in a facility agreement
A borrower is taking a five-year term facility and the finance director wants to know what the covenants would do to next year's plan. The review reads the covenants, the definitions behind them and the default provisions as one connected set.
The problem
Step 01 of 05
Add the agreement and the model
The facility agreement, the borrower's three-year financial model and the existing intercompany loan documents are uploaded to one matter.
Project Halcyon: SPA warranties and disclosure
Buy-side warranty review, disclosure analysis and cited due-diligence grid.
- Client
- Halcyon Bidco Ltd
- Reference
- WC-2026-0412
- Practice area
- Corporate / M&A
- Jurisdiction
- England and Wales
- Responsible partner
- E. Vance
No conflict check on file.Chat, on this matter
Compare warranties with the disclosure letter.
Three high-priority exceptions require action: the unregistered charge, the change-of-control right and the tribunal claim.
Send a message… (@ to mention tools)BalancedPrepare for- 25 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Chat
- 21 Aug
Disclosure exceptions matrix
Run · completed · 560 credits
- 18 Aug
Project Halcyon: Disclosure Letter
Document · indexed
- 16 Aug
Project Halcyon: Share Purchase Agreement
Document · indexed
- 4 Aug
Matter opened
Opened
Step 02 of 05
Run the covenant analysis
Prepare for: Work-Stream Memo. Each financial covenant is read together with every defined term it uses, and the test is restated in the words a finance director would use.
Agent
Jurisdiction
Prepare for
Deliver as
Instruction
What should the agent look for?Documents
Drop a contract, or pick one from the matter
Also on the matter
- Offer_letter_v3.pdf2 pages
- Staff_handbook_2025.docx61 pages
- Board_minute_14_Aug.pdf3 pages
Platform model · zero data retention · audit register onStep 03 of 05
Read the headroom
The gearing test is applied to the model's own figures and shows headroom narrowing to under ten per cent in the second year, on the definitions as drafted.
6 items need your confirmation14 authorities · Where we lookedSenior Associate Employment Contract: English Law Review
Summary
- 1.
Clause 9(c), non-competeHigh
The 12-month prohibition on working for any law firm anywhere in the UK, Ireland or EU, in any capacity, is almost certainly wider than reasonably necessary and therefore unlikely to be enforceable.
Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32 - 2.
Clause 11, data and monitoringHigh
Blanket contractual consent is not an adequate basis for general employment processing, special-category data or unrestricted monitoring.
UK GDPR, Arts 6 and 9 - 3.
Clause 4, holiday carry-overHigh
The unconditional five-day cap conflicts with mandatory carry-over rights where sickness, statutory leave or employer failure prevents leave being taken.
Working Time Regulations 1998, regs 13 to 13A
- 1.
Step 04 of 05
Check what a breach triggers
The memo follows a covenant breach through to the events of default, the cure rights and the cross-default that reaches the intercompany loans.
6 items need your confirmation14 authorities · Where we lookedSenior Associate Employment Contract: English Law Review
Summary
- 1.
Clause 9(c), non-competeHigh
The 12-month prohibition on working for any law firm anywhere in the UK, Ireland or EU, in any capacity, is almost certainly wider than reasonably necessary and therefore unlikely to be enforceable.
Tillman v Egon Zehnder Ltd [2019] UKSC 32 - 2.
Clause 11, data and monitoringHigh
Blanket contractual consent is not an adequate basis for general employment processing, special-category data or unrestricted monitoring.
UK GDPR, Arts 6 and 9 - 3.
Clause 4, holiday carry-overHigh
The unconditional five-day cap conflicts with mandatory carry-over rights where sickness, statutory leave or employer failure prevents leave being taken.
Working Time Regulations 1998, regs 13 to 13A
- 1.
Step 05 of 05
Set the negotiating list
Action items name the three definitions worth negotiating, the information undertaking that is unusually frequent, and the cure right the borrower should ask for.
Replace the UK/Ireland/EU non-compete with a 3 to 6 month restriction tied to competing corporate-law work.
Replace blanket data consent with a lawful-basis clause and a separate monitoring notice.
Remove the five-day carry-over cap and reference the statutory carry-over rules.
Narrow the client non-solicit to clients dealt with in the final 12 months.
Add an explicit working-time opt-out withdrawal mechanism.
Confirm the bonus clause states the discretion is exercised in good faith.
What comes back
A document, not a transcript.
- Each financial covenant restated with its defined terms folded in, in plain commercial language.
- Headroom applied to the borrower's own model, with the year the test tightens identified.
- The consequences of a breach traced through to cross-default and the intercompany position.
- Three definitions to negotiate and a cure right to request, with drafting for each.
What it does not do
- It does not audit the financial model. The figures are the borrower's and are used as supplied.
- It does not negotiate with the lender or approach the agent.
- It does not advise on whether the facility is the right funding structure, which is outside what it reads.