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18 March, 2022

Bridge Financing

 Bridge financing is a method of financing, used to maintain liquidity while waiting for an anticipated and reasonably expected inflow of cash. Bridge financing is commonly used when the cash flow from a sale of an asset is expected after the cash outlay for the purchase of an asset.

Bridge financing is used by companies before their initial public offering, to obtain necessary cash for the maintenance of operations. These funds are usually supplied by the investment bank underwriting the new issue. As payment, the company acquiring the bridge financing will give a number of stocks at a discount of the issue price to the underwriters that equally offset the loan. This financing is, in essence, a forwarded payment for the future sales of the new issue.

Bridge financing may also be provided by banks underwriting an offering of bonds. If the banks are unsuccessful in selling a company's bonds to qualified institutional buyers, they are typically required to buy the bonds from the issuing company themselves, on terms much less favorable than if they had been successful in finding institutional buyers and acting as pure intermediaries.

There are two types of bridging finance. Closed bridging and Open Bridging.

Closed bridging finance is where you have a date for the exit of the bridging finance and are sure that the bridging finance can be repaid on that date. This is less risky for the lender and thus the interest rate charged are lower.

Open bridging is higher risk for the lender. This is where the borrower does not have an exact date for the bridging finance exit and may be looking for a buyer of the property or land.

The surrender value or cash value is the sum of money that an insurer pays to a policyholder when the policy is terminated or surrendered before its maturity.  It is the savings portion of policies such as whole life and endowment.

Some policies, such as term life insurance, do not have a cash value.  So when they are terminated, the customer gets nothing back.

Do note that the surrender value is not the same as the face value, also known as the actual death benefit, of an insurance plan. The latter is the amount that will be paid to beneficiaries as long as the terms of the policy are met. The face value is always more than the cash surrender value.

Policies with surrender or cash value can be used as collateral for a loan, so policyholders can opt to take a loan from the insurer by borrowing against the cash value of their plans.

 The cash surrender value is the sum of money an insurance company will pay to the policyholder or annuity holder in the event his or her policy is voluntarily terminated before its maturity or the insured event occurs. This cash value is the savings component of most permanent life insurance policies, particularly whole life insurance policies. It is also known as "cash value", "surrender value" and "policyholder's equity". This amount is net of any surrender charges and outstanding policy loans and interest thereon.