To be eligible for a loan guarantee under this part, a project must meet the requirements specified in this section and those in the applicable section in §§ 5001.103 through 5001.108.

(a) Service area. For projects with a defined service area, the boundaries for the proposed service area must be chosen in such a way that no user or area will be excluded because of race, color, religion, sex, marital status, age, disability, or national origin. This does not preclude financing or constructing:

(1) Projects in phases (each phase must be financially sustainable without consideration of future phases) when it is not practical to finance or construct the entire project at one time; and

(2) Projects where it is not economically feasible to serve the entire service area, provided the economic feasibility is determined on the basis of the entire system or facility and not by considering the cost of separate extensions to, or parts thereof.

(b) Location. A project must be located in a State and meet the rural or rural area requirements of the applicable section in §§ 5001.103 through 5001.108.

(c) Tax-exempt financing. The agency is prohibited from guaranteeing a project funded with tax-exempt financing. In cases where a project involves both tax-exempt and taxable financing, the portion of the project that involves taxable financing is eligible to receive a loan guarantee if that portion of the project is separate and distinct from the part that is financed by the tax-exempt obligation, and the guaranteed loan is not essential to issuance of the tax-exempt obligation.

(d) Debt refinancing. The Agency can guarantee loans for debt refinancing, as described in paragraphs (d)(1) through (5) of this section when the guaranteed loan extinguishes the debt being refinanced. These paragraphs do not apply to REAP loans, see § 5001.121(d)(14) for REAP refinancing provisions. Longer-term financing to pay off a lender's interim construction loan after project completion will not be treated as debt refinancing as long as it meets the requirements for takeout of interim financing in § 5001.121(c)(6). An eligible debt refinancing project is:

(1) Refinancing of debt on one or more loans owed to another creditor. There is no limit on percent of total use of funds if a new lender is refinancing debt owed to another creditor;

(2) Refinancing of debt owed to the applicant lender or any part thereof provided that the applicant lender debt being refinanced does not exceed 50 percent of the total use of funds in the new aggregated federally-guaranteed debt, the applicant lender debt being refinanced is in a current status for the past six months and the new guaranteed loan is providing better rates or repayment terms. Better rates or repayment terms can be shown in a variety of ways including the lender providing a fixed rate over a lower variable rate provided the change is advantageous to the borrower's long-term repayment ability. The current status cannot be achieved by the lender forgiving the borrower's debt or by servicing actions that impact the borrower's repayment schedule; or

(3) Refinancing of debt owed directly to the Federal Government or that is federally-guaranteed, including any guaranteed debt owed to the applicant lender, when a refinance of this debt is consistent with sections 333, “Special Conditions and Limitations on Loans” and 306(a)(24)(C), “Loan Guarantees for Water, Wastewater, and Essential Community Facilities Loans” of the Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act (as amended by the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, Pub. L. 115-334). Such guaranteed debt shall not be included in the amount of applicant lender debt when calculating the maximum percentage of the total use of funds in the new guaranteed loan as stated in paragraph (d)(2) of this section; and,

(4) When the refinancing is in accordance with paragraphs (d)(1) through (3) of this section, the following requirements must be met:

(i) The Agency has determined that the project is viable, and debt refinancing is necessary to improve cash flow;

(ii) The debt is reflected on the borrower's balance sheet and the original loan funds were used for project-eligible purposes. Refinancing of existing of lines of credit is considered an eligible purpose for debt refinancing in the B&I program;

(iii) For loans to existing businesses where debt refinancing is a majority purpose of the guaranteed loan, the borrower must demonstrate historical debt service coverage ratios using proposed debt service requirements of not less than 1.1 times, or the borrower's current financial performance demonstrates it has corrected or recovered from impacts or issues adversely affecting its past financial performance. The debt service coverage ratio computed based on the current income statement must be at least 1:1 to demonstrate correction or recovery.

(5) For CF guaranteed loan requests only, refinancing of debt, not including new construction, incurred by a rural hospital to preserve access to a health service when the refinancing will meaningfully improve the financial position of the hospital. The debt can be existing Agency direct loan debt, Agency guaranteed debt, or another lender's debt (including other non-Agency Federal guaranteed debt). Loan requests to refinance rural hospital debt must demonstrate that the new amount of annual debt repayment on the debt being refinanced will be less than the existing amount of annual debt repayment and provide a total debt service coverage ratio of at least 1.1 based on historical cash flow. To calculate the ratio, the new debt service amount will include annual capital expense reserve and annual debt repayment reserve requirements. This information will be provided by the lender on an Agency approved application for loan guarantee and its associated supporting documentation.

[85 FR 42518, July 14, 2020, as amended at 85 FR 62196, Oct. 2, 2020; 89 FR 79709, Sept. 30, 2024]