We recently met up with Joe Messineo, senior vice president of the Northeast Region, at Gibraltar Business Capital (GBC) to share his perspective on what makes GBC different, how the industry has evolved, how the company has adapted, and what he enjoys most about his role.
Joe leads GBC’s origination activities in the Northeast Region, bringing over 25 years of experience creating customized capital solutions for lower middle-market businesses.
What differentiates GBC in the lending industry?
GBC is differentiated by four key qualities: a high concentration of talent, collaborative decision making, transparency, and our origins dating back to 1951. Today, it’s rare to see non-bank lenders have such a lasting operating history.
The depth of our highly engaged credit team is shown through our management team’s average of 30+ years of credit experience in both bank and non-bank lending. In the non-bank lending world, there are often just one or two people with full decision authority. Gibraltar has a more collaborative approach that involves multiple individuals early in the process. The result is faster decision making that’s more creative and more prudent.
From the initial conversation with a prospect through portfolio management, Gibraltar prides itself on transparent communication. We believe good honest two-way dialogue creates more efficiency and leads to better outcomes for both the borrower and lender. Because senior management is engaged early in the process, we give borrowers confidence from the start that we’ll deliver on the proposed terms.
What do you find most rewarding about your work at Gibraltar?
I enjoy that we’re a key partner in helping businesses successfully achieve their goals. Most often, we are a capital provider for businesses in some form of a transition, which is typically a turnaround, acquisition, high growth opportunity, shareholder buyout, etc. During this period, we make a meaningful difference by providing reliable and patient capital that gives them the needed flexibility to properly execute on their plans. When their plans are complete, these businesses are larger and healthier than when they originally engaged with us.
What makes Gibraltar’s business model unique?
Capital is a commodity, and anyone can lend it, but building a trusted brand over several decades is what makes Gibraltar unique.
We take a long-term relationship approach, even though we’re providers of two-year and three-year capital. We view all our portfolio companies as true partners because our capital helps drive their success, and their success drives our success. We strive to get a deep understanding of our partners’ business, their challenges, and goals, and then develop a capital plan to help them achieve both short and long-term goals.
The strong relationship we have with our portfolio companies creates a more enjoyable lender and borrower experience and helps drive future business. We often have current and former portfolio companies refer us to business. For instance, many financial sponsors come back to us for multiple financing partnerships. In 2024 alone we had six former portfolio companies inquire about coming back to Gibraltar.
What has changed most in the past decade in this industry?
In the last ten years, non-bank ABL has grown significantly and become a more viable option for a broader set of businesses. This increased demand has also brought in new pools of capital and more robust competition. Like many growing markets, new players often test traditional ways of doing business, and ABL is no exception.
We frequently see some lenders push past historical ABL underwriting standards, which has made it more challenging to predict what the rest of the industry might do to win a specific deal. But I believe long term market standards are in place for a reason. While markets evolve and standards change, only time will tell if this newer aggressive way of lending morphs into the new standard or becomes a cautionary tale.
How has Gibraltar adapted to those changes?
As the market has evolved so has Gibraltar. However, when it comes to underwriting standards, we’ve stayed disciplined and stuck to what has proven successful for our team for decades.
With the increased competition, we always assume we’re up against at least four or five other lenders. That’s why we proactively take a deep dive into each prospect’s business model, their pain points, working capital needs, and multi-year goals. From there, we create a structure that properly addresses the company’s needs. When we issue a term sheet, we make it comprehensive and transparent with competitive pricing. We’ve continuously gained more clients by putting our best foot forward from the start.
How does the team at Gibraltar foster a “Deal Minded” culture?
Our ‘Deal Minded’ culture stems from our mission statement, which is to provide our customers with consistent, reliable liquidity in a transparent way with competitive pricing and exceptional service. These aren’t just words on paper; this mindset is driven from the top down and is something embedded in every credit facility we review.
An engaged management team is also a huge factor in our culture. When we’re reviewing a credit facility, it’s an all hands on deck collaborative approach to collectively structure a winning deal.
In what situations should a referral partner or potential borrower make GBC their first call?
While Gibraltar can consider a wide range of deals, those meeting several of these characteristics should prioritize Gibraltar in their selection process. Ideal situations include businesses with annual revenues exceeding $50 million and loan requirements between $10 million and $100 million. The company should have a majority of its operations based in the U.S. and operate within industries such as manufacturing, distribution, consumer products, or business services.
Gibraltar is particularly well-suited for capital needs related to turnarounds, acquisitions, high growth opportunities, expansions, or shareholder buyouts. The business should be approximately 12-18 months away from being considered truly “bankable” on paper. Additionally, a strong management team seeking a sophisticated partner capable of facilitating a smooth transition to a bank once the business is ready is highly desirable.
To learn more about Joe and our experienced business development team, visit the sales team page on our website.
