(1) Business Advisory Services: EDC@SCCCI helps SMEs to weather the Global Financial Crisis
The Enterprise Development of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce & Industry (EDC@SCCCI) is dedicated to “walk the-talk” with our SMEs and together, weather the economic storm, to emerge stronger and take on the global challenges.
EDC@SCCCI, together with SCCCI has in place a full suite of 2009 Economic Uncertainties Series to help SMEs be well equipped and build resilience during the tough times, and more importantly get out of the business downturn and tap on opportunities that arise out of the crisis.
Financial Facilitator Programme (FFP) is a programme to assist SMEs in need of financing to tap on the government financing schemes. Services under the FFP cover diagnosis of financial health of the business, advices on financing options, and assistance on loan applications.
Beyond FFP, the business owners who qualify for government grant and incentives or bank loans receive useful consultancy service on making good use of the funds obtained to grow their businesses and fulfill their financial obligations. Others, who do not qualify at this juncture, need financial expertise advice on how to set their business IN ORDER first, prior to getting the financing. Our consultants will provide counseling on business planning and financial management.
“Meet the Experts” business clinics are regularly carried out at EDC@SCCCI, providing Free-of-Charge (FOC) one-to-one customized advisory service in response to the pressing financial needs of SCCCI members and SMEs.
To showcase some success stories, EDC@SCCCI is happy to share the positive experiences of 3 SMEs, U-Thank Marketing Pte Ltd (U-Thank), Everrise Plastics Industries Pte Ltd (Everrise) and Evaco Lifelife Pte Ltd.
Mr Wang & Mr Oh of U-Thank Marketing Pte Ltd, were in distress when its banker wanted to recall its loan to the company and withdraw its line of credit. After going through the initial strategic and financial workouts with our consultants, they made a visit to the bank and present to the bankers their business turnaround plan. The company successfully demonstrated their capability and conviction to want to make the changes to turnaround the business. The bankers eventually gave their full support to restructure the loan and allow the company more time to rebuild the business.
With professional helps to observe financial discipline and implement growth strategies, companies in financial stress can turnaround and continue to grow. Banks are generally supportive of viable businesses. They want to help deserving SMEs with the assurance that the financial assistance will not end-up as non-performing loans.
U-Thank is glad that it now has “peace of mind” to focus on running their day-to-day business. The owners have been conscious to ensure that the renewed support from the bank is not taken for granted and will make careful use of bank financing in growing their business. They are making smart use of expert advice to make the changes to improve cash flow and profit.
Another entrepreneur, Mr Max Yeo of Everrise Plastics Industries Pte Ltd, having undergone preliminary strategic and financial workouts with our consultants, was able to articulate the company’s growth plans to his bankers to secure continued support of banking facilities to operate and expand his business overseas.
For Mr Kelvin Ling of Evaco Lifestyle Pte Ltd, which deals with Zi-Diamond (a unique gemstone where a layer of diamond dust is infused onto the surface of Cubic Zirconia), approached EDC@SCCCI for business matching. Our consultant managed to match him to companies in China for outsourced production and local distributorship.
Going forward, our consultants will continue to support and assist the 3 companies to drive their businesses and achieve sustainable growth and profitability.
These 3 companies are certainly doing us a good service by sharing their experiences with other small & medium businesses. We hope through this sharing, SMEs facing similar challenges like U-Thank and Everrise can come and seek assistances from our business clinics.
(2) Financial Facilitation Programme 贷款申请服务
This company seeking EDC@SCCCI assistance is incorporated in 2000 with core business in the provision of employment services. During the time they approach EDC@SCCCI, they had an outstanding loan with a local-based foreign bank, an OD line with UOB and maintained current accounts with 3 separate banks.
Since the inception of the economic crisis back in Sep 2008, the company’s business has been severely affected as requirements for overseas labours dwindled. The Company has applied for bridging loan with 3 different banks during the period of January to February 2009 but all their applications were rejected with no reasons provided. The company has learnt about FFP through the media advertisement and approached EDC@SCCCI for assistance.
We spent several hours with the company understanding the company’s business and needs. Our consultant brought them through the process of diagnosing their financial health, explore potential financing options, and provide guidance on how to put forward their business case.
We first explained to them the details of Bridging Loan Programme and the requirements/procedures of loan application. Loan application forms were handed over to the company & guidance on filling the application forms.
We then arranged for the company to meet with our consultant Mr Lim Yian Poh, a veteran with more than 30 years of experience in the financial industry for further discussion.
Through the financial health diagnostic interview, we understood that the company has been profitable in recent years except for one year, which was largely due to increase of finance cost resulted partly from new factoring interest & charges & partly from increase of interest payment with a new term loan. We also understood from the company that they have a broad customer base, most of which are fundamentally strong companies. We opined that this is a favorable consideration for loan application.
To further substantiate the loan application, we suggested to the company to do the followings:
- To apply through their current banker as new bank would need time to know them.
- To submit 3 years of audited financial statements and Jan 2009 management accounts even though the bank only required latest financial statement of not more than 1 year. This will help the bank to better assess the financial status of company.
- To provide the bank with the list of their customers as well as the latest debtors and creditors lists.
The company eventually received approval from the bank for a Bridging Loan exceeding $100,000.
