SMERescueLoans.com Launched to Support New Plan to Save American Jobs

New York, NY, August 6, 2009 -- Private equity CEO Lynn Tilton today launched SMERescueLoans.com, a web site introducing a new economic proposal dedicated to saving jobs in America and slowing the rapid rise in unemployment.  The program would create a public-private partnership to provide rescue loans to small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs). The financial crisis has left a gaping hole in the capital markets.  The dearth of lending to SMEs, companies that provide more than 80 percent of U.S. employment, is forcing mass layoffs and asset liquidations.
 
Using excess TARP funds previously set aside for the Treasury’s Public Private Investment Partnership (PPIP), the Rescue Loans Program would co-invest with pre-approved private investment managers in senior-secured, first-lien loans to SME companies that have been denied or have lost routine working capital loans necessary to operate a business in the ordinary course. The plan would share profits with the taxpayer but would protect taxpayer funds by requiring the private sector to take the first loss layer, thus bearing the bulk of risk.
 
“Without access to basic loans, many companies that might otherwise survive and flourish are forced to lay off workers or liquidate, driving unemployment and deepening the recession,” said Lynn Tilton. “The most direct and rapid solution to stem job losses is to motivate private enterprise to originate and monetize rescue financing loans for struggling smaller and middle-market companies.”
 
The new web site provides details on the plan and information about ways people can get involved, tell their stories and apply for rescue loans.
 
ABOUT LYNN TILTON
Lynn Tilton is a successful investor and industrialist.  Ms. Tilton is dedicated to saving jobs in America through the acquisition of small and mid-sized companies that, without such investment, might otherwise liquidate.  As CEO of Patriarch Partners, a $6 billion private equity fund with investments in over 70 companies that employ more than 100,000 people, Ms. Tilton has a unique perspective on the enormous challenges faced by such companies in today’s economic and lending environment.