Business and Finance

In December 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) proposed amendments to the definitions of “accredited investor” and “qualified institutional buyer”.

On June 5, 2020, the Paycheck Protection Program Flexibility Act of 2020 (“PPPFA”) was enacted, amending key provisions of the Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”). The changes provide relief to borrowers of PPP loans in the form of expanded forgiveness and increased flexibility in the use of loan proceeds. Businesses…

Omnitracs, LLC ("Omnitracs"), a global pioneer of fleet management solutions to transportation and logistics companies, announced its acquisition of VisTracks, a leading provider of device-agnostic, SaaS-based compliance solutions to the transportation and logistics industry. HMB represented VisTracks' founder, Stephen G. Eick, in the transaction. The VisTracks architecture provides a lightweight, mobile device-based and cloud-enabled solution, which will allow Omnitracs to…

Project Management Advisors ("PMA"), a real estate and development consultancy company, announced its partnership with American Realty Project Management ("ARPM"), a full-range construction oversight and project management company. HMB represented PMA. This partnership will expand the Austin offices and broaden both PMA and ARPM client and industry sector involvement in the Austin market and neighboring area. The alliance will continue…

Hadley Capital ("Hadley"), a small-business investor, announced its acquisition of Equustock, a manufacturer of animal bedding and litter products, predominantly horse-related products sold under their Guardian Horse Bedding brand. HMB represented Hadley in the transaction. Founded in 1998 bu Scott Dickes, Hadley plans to build on the Guardian Horse Bedding brand's excellent reputation and to expand Equustock's production capacity and…

May 12, 2020 As COVID-19 presses state and local governments to continue their shutdown orders, some businesses are incurring extensive expenses and losses. Whether the business is open with limited capacity, allowing employees to work from home, or closed until the orders are lifted,  businesses are asking if and how insurance can provide relief. This article provides information on the…

The Small Business Reorganization Act (SBRA) was enacted in February 2020 with no one anticipating the global pandemic. Today, the financial consequences have hit small businesses hard. The SBRA, commonly known as Subchapter V, may provide much-needed relief to small businesses as they struggle through the crisis. With the Subchapter V election likely to surge during and after the pandemic,…

As Illinois and other states begin to rollback stay-at-home orders, employers need to be prepared for employee COVID-19 claims. Please join us for a 45 minute discussion on how to prepare your business to manage COVID-19 in the workplace. The discussion will include guidance on: What to do when an employee notifies you that they have COVID-19 What to do…

Many current businesses own cyber insurance policies that actually may not cover incidents or claims that are the result of an employee using his/her own personal device(s) for Work From Home (“WFH”) purposes for their employer. This is an easy mistake for employees as WFH is the current norm. As with all insurance contracts, whether there is coverage or not…

Engineered Plastic Systems ("EPS"), an engineer and manufacturer of high-density polyethylene ("HDPE"), announced its acquisition by CMI Limited Co. ("CMI"), a Georgia-based manufacturing portfolio company of Capital Partners. HMB represented EPS in the transaction. EPS is headquartered in Elgin, Illinois and manufactures HDPE for decking, railing and park products among others. Founded in 2000, EPS markets its products under Lumberock,…

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) is Congress’s initial economic stimulus plan in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Additional economic stimulus packages are expected. The CARES Act was signed into law by the President today. The $2 trillion package provides relief to businesses, individuals, families, the healthcare system, states, and more. We are continuing to review…

Covid-19 is disrupting businesses, their supply chains and their customers and causing major losses. Governors of Illinois, California, New York and Pennsylvania have issued “stay at home” and similar orders impacting employees and many businesses. Are any of these losses covered by insurance? The answer is maybe. The type of insurance a business carries and the specific insurance policy language are critical to determine…

DataCubes is the first underwriting decisioning platform for commercial property and casualty insurance. Leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence software, DataCubes provides commercial carriers of all sizes the ability to make real-time underwriting decisions. The intelligence gathered provides efficient, accurate, and productive steps forward for DataCubes' clients. The company was founded in 2016 by Kuldeep Malik and Harish Neelamana and…

HMB represented Ascent in a $19.3 Million Series B Funding Round, led by Drive Capital. Ascent is an AI-driven solution company. Their goal is to help customers automate regulatory compliance by delivering customers regulatory knowledge in the form of a dynamic obligations register. This approach reduces the mundane and error-prone manual efforts of regulatory research and analysis. With Series B…

HMB represented EDCO Health Information Solutions Inc. in it's sale to BV Investment Partners, a middle-market private equity firm focused on the business services, software and IT sectors. Headquartered in St. Louis, MO, EDCO provides automated unstructured data indexing solutions to healthcare providers. EDCO's Solarity®, a patented medical record indexing software, gives automated transformation of unstructured data into clinically relevant patient…

HMB represented Quantitative Insights, developer of QuantX, the first-ever FDA-cleared computer-aided breast cancer diagnosis system in radiology, in its sale to Qlarity Imaging, a portfolio company of Paragon Biosciences. Quantitative Insights was founded at the University of Chicago around technology developed at the University and with the support of the University’s Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Paragon is a…

Spring 2014 The winter months were unusually cool in late 2013 and early 2014, and most middle market borrowers and lenders will likely concede that lending activity during those months was equally cool.  The optimism for robust deal flow in 2013 never materialized into actual results, even though most middle market lenders remained quite optimistic until the bitter end.  Spring,…

CHICAGO, September 13, 2011 - Four highly-experienced partners have joined the Chicago business law firm of Horwood Marcus & Berk Chartered (HMB), expanding the firm's service offerings in the areas of banking, finance, securities, restructuring and bankruptcy, as well as commercial litigation. The four most recently practiced in the Chicago office of a large Detroit-based law firm and prior to that the…