Industry Veteran Launches Liberty Commercial Finance



Equipment finance and leasing veteran Eric Freeman has launched Liberty Commercial Finance, a new independent equipment lease and finance company with offices in Irvine, CA and Denver, CO. Joining Freeman is an experienced sales and operations team with a combined 100+ years of experience in various capacities of the equipment lease and finance industry.

“Companies throughout the U.S. are experiencing an era of rapid growth, and are in need of flexible, customized finance solutions with personal service they can count on,” said Freeman, who serves as president of the new firm. “Liberty Commercial Finance meets the needs of these companies by offering the financial backing of a large institution with the personal touch of a boutique firm.”

Freeman notes that Liberty is well-positioned to serve a wide variety of credit profiles, from lower middle market “unbankable” profiles all the way to enterprise-level credit companies.

“We have deep relationships with a network of private money and non-bank regulated funding sources, to get the more challenged deals done as well as local and commercial banks, specialty finance companies and insurance companies to ensure competitive rates for every credit profile” Freeman explains.

Liberty will originate equipment lease and finance transactions through four distinct channels:

  • Structured Finance: Serving the “unbankable” segment of the market with S&P rated and non-rated equivalents of CCC to B. Deal sizes will range from $2 million to $30 million and will be mostly hard collateral, structured deals
  • Private Equity Finance: This group will focus exclusively on the equipment lease and financing needs for private equity owned companies.  Deal sizes will range from $500,000 to $30 million and will be a mix of assets, industries and credit profiles.
  • Enterprise Leasing: This group will focus mainly on FMV transactions for technology and material handling equipment for investment grade or near investment grade credits. Deal sizes will range from $250,000 to $100 million for all collateral types and industries.
  • Vendor Finance: This group is focused on forming strategic relationships with equipment vendors throughout the U.S. Deal sizes will be $25,000 to $350,000 app-only with full underwriting above $350,000.

“Liberty Commercial is poised to capitalize on a solid economy, a liquid credit market and an experienced sales and operations team to execute on our proven business plan and become a major player in the independent space, both short and long term,” Freeman said.

Prior to launching the firm, Freeman spent 15 years building origination and funding platforms for independent equipment leasing companies, including his most recent success-launching and running the middle market division of Summit Funding Group. Under his leadership, the group went from start-up to funding over $500 million in four years-results that clearly prove Liberty’s business model.


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