- Key insight: Limiting the scope of its lending and backing its loans with first liens on tangible assets has helped the $17 billion-asset Beal Bank USA succeed with a strategy aimed at doing nine-figure deals without partners.
- Supporting data: The Las Vegas-based company announced a $450 million loan to a company serving offshore energy facilities last week.
- Expert Quote: Borrowers appreciate that "they're not dealing with six loan committees and their different requirements," lead oil and gas executive at CSG Investments.
Most $17 billion-asset banks wouldn't make a $450 million loan on their own. But Beal Bank USA isn't like most banks.
Earlier this month, the privately held, Las Vegas-based bank disclosed that it lent $450 million to a Louisiana-based marine transportation and offshore services provider. The borrower, Otto Candles LLC, used the loan proceeds to acquire four multi-purpose supply vessels.
Beal relies on streamlined decision-making to win nine-figure deals that most other banks of its size won't do without partners.
"Their ability to move decisively and provide a clear, committed financial solution on a tight timeline was instrumental," Otto Candles, the borrower's CEO, said in a press release.
Damien Reynolds, chief operating officer at CSG Investments, a Beal affiliate that originates loans for Beal Bank USA, said the family-owned Otto Candles LLC is a leader in its industry. "We're very pleased to work with them in this transaction," Reynolds told American Banker.
Beal Bank USA and a sister bank are owned by Andrew Beal, a poker-playing billionaire who won renown in banking by buying up distressed assets, and for radically scaling back his banks' activity in the years leading up to the 2007-2009 financial crisis.
That pullback insulated Beal from the turbulence that roiled so many other banks. Since then, Beal's organization has sprung back to life, resuming asset purchases — and punching well above its weight in lending.
Beal's banks have reported more than $2 billion of profits since the 2007-2009 crisis ended, including $33 million during the first six months of 2025, according to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. statistics.
In many instances, a bank seeking to book a loan the size of Beal's deal with Otto Candles would syndicate a portion of the loan to limit its risk. Indeed, banks shared more than 11,000 loans of $100 million or more during the first six months of 2024, according to the
Beal takes a different tack. It handles major credits secured by tangible assets in-house.
"Syndicating our originations isn't our cup of tea," Farzin Dinyarian, managing director and head of oil and gas for CSG, told American Banker on Thursday.
Borrowers appreciate that "they're not dealing with multiple loan committees and their different requirements," Dinyarian added.
Beal appears to be having little or no difficulty finding deals.
In August, the bank announced it had loaned $110 million to CBL Properties, a Chattanooga, Tennessee-based real estate investment trust. CBL used the proceeds to acquire four enclosed malls in Florida, Kentucky, Colorado and Montana. The deal boosted the size of CBL's borrowing relationship with Beal to $443 million.
In July 2024, Beal's CSG affiliate originated a $275 million loan that borrower El Dorado Drilling used to acquire a drillship, used for offshore oil and gas drilling. The loan, which increased the size of Beal's borrowing relationship with El Dorado to $550 million, went on the books of Beal's sister bank.
In December 2023, Beal's sister institution loaned $620 million to a borrower group to fund construction of a mixed-use development in Dallas. The Knox Street project includes a hotel, condominiums, office and retail space and a multifamily tower.
While those dollar amounts may seem daunting, Beal controls its risk by limiting lending to established companies and funding transactions backed by first-lien tangible assets. The company "has produced consistently outstanding results for decades," Dinyarian said.
