Unless I’m misunderstanding your question, there are a lot of lenders who will lend money without a PG for deals with EBITDA >$1mm. You need to find the local lender in the geography your deal is in that does cash flow lending. I’d find a list of the top 20 depositors in that area, cross the major lenders like BAC, WFC, and JPM off the list, and call the remaining lenders on the list. If they don’t do cash flow lending, ask them who does. For our third LOI while searching we found the needle in the haystack on the first call and every call after that pointed us to the first bank they called. Some will tell you they won’t require a PG, but then when it comes time to issue a term sheet, they all of a sudden require it, so don’t stop when you get one yes.

I can concur with some of the comments above. At the deal size you are looking at just about all conventional banks require a personal guarantee. Exceptions would be for transactions with strong balance sheets, low LTV's / LTC's sub 50%, and debt service coverage ratios 2x plus. On small business acquisitions lenders rely heavily on the operator to stand behind the deal because most of the time when they find out there is a problem it is already too late. The personal guarantee ensures the owner(s) do the right things for the company as a whole and the lender as there is personal risk. I am always happy to discuss personal guarantees. You can reach me here or directly at redacted