The voluntary administrators of small business lender Axsesstoday have found a buyer for the business and have entered into an implementation deed with a local affiliate of a US private equity firm. The bad news is that there is unlikely to be any return for Axsesstoday shareholders from the sale.The administrators, from Deloitte Financial Advisory, announced on Friday they had entered into an exclusivity arrangement with an affiliate of Cerberus European Investments, which is itself an affiliate of New York-based Cerberus Capital Management. Cerberus will be familiar as the investor that acquired the Australian, New Zealand and Philippines operations of lender Bluestone Group last year. At the time, a company spokesperson told the Australian Financial Review that it was "looking at more opportunities in company platforms or assets in the loan and real estate space".The terms of the implementation deed require that Axsesstoday's secured lenders consent to the repayment terms.Regarding the fate of shareholders and unsecured creditors, the announcement said: "The voluntary administrators are able to confirm that the purchase price payable for the AXL subsidiaries, together with the realisation of all other assets of AXL, will be insufficient to repay unsecured creditors in full and the terms of the DOCA will be a compromise of unsecured creditors' claims."Accordingly, no return to shareholders from the sale of the AXL subsidiaries is anticipated."Axsesstoday went into voluntary administration in April, after senior lenders told the company they were not prepared to support it with ongoing waivers of breaches of loan terms.The company's stock had been in voluntary suspension since September last year.The company got into trouble when it mismanaged a capital expansion last year. In May 2018, it set up a securitisation warehouse facility with A$200 million in senior bank funding provided by Macquarie and a total capacity of $285 million.A month later, it launched a simple corporate bond offer, raising $55 million, with the proceeds to be used to support loan growth and repay existing borrowings.In August, it reported strong financial results, with EBITDA growth of 130 per cent to $26.3 million and net profit growth of 94 per cent to $7 million. The loan book increased by 100 per cent during the 2017/18 financial year and stood at $336 million at June 30.But then the problems emerged. In November the company disclosed that it had breached covenants under its syndicated facility, subordinated note and Series 2 note agreements.The company said these failures occurred because strong business growth put pressure on its capital structure. It also had problems with higher than expected arrears levels.Chief executive Peter Ferizis was terminated in November, and in February the chief financial officer Joe Flanagan was terminated by incoming chief executive Joanna White.Legal counsel was brought in in the New Year to provide guidance on the company's ongoing compliance with its funding agreements. While all this is being sorted out business activity has been scaled back.