Bridge Finance – Complete Details with Features

Bridge finance : Introduction

Bridge finance is a type of short term loan which acts provides a financial assistance to meet the short term liquidity requirements. As the name suggests it acts as a bridge between the initial period and the time till one can get a permanent source of finance to meet his requirements.It is a gap financing arrangement.

Example :

For example , ABC Ltd is a small scale enterprise engaging in the business of oil refinery on a small scale. Suddenly as a result cof their extremely good quality they got a project worth 1 crores ,For this the company went to his banker and applied for the loan. It was said that the loan amount will be disbursed after 3 months due to the complexity of procedural aspects. Then if ABC Ltd goes to another lender/ same lender to obtain a loan which rescue them till the first loan is disbursed, it is called as bridge loan.

Features of Bridge Finance :

(1) Short term oriented :

Bridge loans are oriented for short period i.e less than a year. The main objective of bridge loan is to facilitate the financial assistance to meet short term financial requirements. When a new graduate wants to start his own enterprise then definitely he needs the financial backup to meet his working capital requirements and to facilitate the business with initial arrangements. In such case if he opts to apply bridge loans then it provides him the ability to meet above stated short term requirements.

(2) High interest costs :

As they are short term oriented and the payback period is also less compared to the long-term industrial loans , they carry higher interest costs. As they come to rescue in your financially unfavorable conditions definitely they result in high interest cost.

(3)Demands collateral security :

They demand collateral security. The top players who provide bridge loans in the economy ask for the collateral security in almost all the cases. The value of the security one can keep as collateral will directly influence the amount of loan the lender is willing to grant.

(4) Alternative modes of payment :

Bridge loans facilitate to repay the loan either before or after the actual permanent source of finance is secured. If a company wants to repay before then it improves the credit rating of the company with that lender so that they can even get long term loans from the same lender. If they choose to repay the loan after the main source of finance is granted then he can do it out of the funds granted by the permanent source of funding for which they might have been waited.