Veterinary Clinic Feasibility Study in Georgia

Georgia veterinary loans run large

Georgia veterinary clinics borrow big and borrow often. The state is 6 of 53 for SBA veterinary loans, with 122 approvals worth $131.8 million across FY2017 to FY2026, and its 1.22x location quotient means Georgia gives clinics more room in its SBA book than the nation does. At $772,500, the Georgia clinic median is 1.24x the national veterinary figure, and the middle half of approvals falls between $318,000 and $1.5 million. Within the state the class ranks 14 of 39. Large as the tickets are, they do not clear our distinctness screen, which also compares them with Georgia's all-class median.

Live Oak and the clinic buyers

Live Oak Banking Company dominates the Georgia veterinary book with 36 loans worth $52.0 million. Wells Fargo Bank National Association follows with 11 worth $15.3 million and United Community Bank with 9 worth $10.3 million, then Ameris Bank and Pinnacle Bank on 5 each. Nearly every deal uses SBA 7(a), 109 approvals to 13 under SBA 504, and franchise brands are close to absent at 0.82%, so these are independent practices changing hands or expanding. Fulton County records 27 approvals; Chatham and DeKalb have 9 apiece, Cobb 7 and Gwinnett 6. Volume dipped to 4 approvals worth $2.0 million in FY2023 before climbing to 19 worth $21.2 million in FY2026.

How Georgia clinics have repaid

Repayment has been good but not flawless. Georgia clinics that drew their loans over FY2017 to FY2021 number 63; the charge-off floor for that group is 3.2%, and 1.6% failed within five years of approval. Each FY2017 to FY2024 approval has now either funded or been cancelled, which is why the 8.9% cancellation rate is both floor and ceiling.

Tickets near $772,500 usually mean a practice purchase priced on goodwill, so a Georgia veterinary study has to defend that price. Demand should be measured from the clinic's own records, meaning patients seen, visit counts, revenue by service line and how many clients return each year, and then set against corporate-owned and independent practices competing for the same animals. Cost covers diagnostic and imaging equipment, surgical suites and any expansion, priced from vendor quotes. Coverage should be computed on collections after the selling veterinarian leaves, with associate pay at market and a case in which part of the client list drifts away. The appraisal will value cash flow and goodwill, plus the building if it is in the deal, so the study should give the appraiser revenue that ties to tax returns.

Georgia's figures cover SBA-guaranteed veterinary loans only, listed under the borrower's industry code, and each rate is a minimum while loans remain open.