LMMMAlower middle market M&A

Rank 84 of 151 · 2 states

$83.1MCapital deployed

Gesa CU

Gesa CU was lender of record on 98 SBA-financed business acquisitions since FY2019, deploying $83.1M. Its median acquisition loan was $623,550 over 10 years at 9.75%, and it wrote deals in 2 states, with 88.8% of them in its largest single state.

This is a public record, not an endorsement. The figures come from the SBA's own loan-level file. LMMMA has no commercial relationship with this or any other lender, receives nothing for naming them, and does not recommend one bank over another. Nothing here is a credit reference or an assessment of the institution.

§1

Volume and price

What businesses financed by Gesa CU financed by an SBA 7(a) acquisition loan actually cost, and how many of them there were.

Financed acquisitions98Disbursed loans, FY2019 to date
Capital deployed$83.1MGross approval, all years
Median loan$623,550Half above, half below
Interquartile range$350k - $1.2MMiddle half of deals
Median rate9.75%98 loans with a recorded rate
Median term10 years98 loans with a recorded term

Source: SBA 7(a) FOIA loan-level extract, change-of-ownership approvals, FY2019 onward. Data as of 30 June 2026. n = 98 financed acquisitions.

Loan size distribution
Size bandAcquisitionsShare
Under $250k1414.3%
$250k to $500k2424.5%
$500k to $1M2424.5%
$1M to $2M2929.6%
$2M to $3.5M66.1%
$3.5M to $5M11.0%
$5M and above00.0%
All98100.0%

The 7(a) programme caps a single loan at $5M, so the top band is a ceiling of the instrument, not of the market. Deals above it are financed conventionally and do not appear in this file at all.

§2

How the paper was structured

Loan terms here are not spread smoothly. They spike at exactly ten years and again at exactly twenty-five, with very little in between. Those two points are the programme's maturity ceilings, and which one applies depends on what secures the loan, so a term running past ten years indicates real property was financed alongside the business.

Term structure
TermWhat it indicatesAcquisitionsShare
Under 10 yearsShorter than the goodwill maximum1414.3%
Exactly 10 yearsThe standard goodwill-only note4545.9%
10 to 20 yearsMixed collateral44.1%
20 years and overReal property financed with the business3535.7%

45.9% of loans here run exactly ten years and 35.7% run twenty years or more. n = 98 loans with a recorded term.

§3

What happened next

Two outcomes are visible in the file: approvals that never funded, and funded loans that later charged off. Both are facts about deals, not forecasts.

Approvals cancelled6.7%7 of 105 approvals never disbursed
Charged off, FY2019-FY2021 cohort-Cohort too small to publish (0 loans)
Jobs recorded623Jobs supported, as reported by the lender at approval
Franchised3.1%Share of acquisitions carrying a franchise name

The charge-off share is cumulative as of 30 June 2026 for loans approved in FY2019-FY2021. Those loans are five to seven years into terms that are usually ten years, so the figure is a floor and the lifetime rate will be higher. It is not comparable to a rate computed over a fully matured cohort, and the site does not publish one for later years for that reason.

§4

By fiscal year

FY23FY24FY25FY26*

* FY2026 is incomplete. The extract closes 30 June 2026, nine months into a fiscal year that ends 30 September, and some FY2026 approvals have not yet disbursed. Do not read the last column as a decline.

§5

Where and what it lends against

States
StateAcquisitionsShare
WA Washington8788.8%
OR Oregon1111.2%
§6

In context

This lender wrote 0.24% of all SBA-financed business acquisitions in the country over the period. The ten largest acquisition lenders between them wrote 28.1%.

A buyer's choice of lender is one of the few things a seller can ask about directly during an LOI negotiation, and the answer is informative. See the financing contingency for what to ask and why.

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