As president of First Financial Capital, Michael Saei draws on three decades of experience, providing structured financing services to the petroleum and convenience store industry. Since 2004, Michael Saei has leveraged this specialized knowledge to oversee First Financial’s acquisition and sale of over 1000 petroleum stations, while at the same time providing bridge loans to the commercial real estate sector.
Also referred to as swing loans or gap financing, Bridge loans are short-term lending products designed to provide short-term financing to cover immediate financial obligations. Bridge loans typically carry high interest rates and often require real estate, inventory, or other assets as collateral to ensure repayment.
Bridge loans can allow companies to continue operating while awaiting more permanent forms of financing. For example, a company pursuing equity financing may take out a bridge loan to fund its inventory, utilities, payroll, and other core operational costs until it secures long-term funding months in the future. Bridge loans can not only provide extra support to emerging companies seeking initial funding to get off the ground, but can also assist more established firms in making significant acquisitions.
Additionally, bridge loans have occasional applications in the real estate sector. Although lenders typically only offer this type of lending to borrowers with extremely high credit scores, a real estate bridge loan can combine the mortgages of two properties to allow home buyers to account for the delay between the purchase of a new home and the sale of an old one.
