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The And Finance Executives When It Is A Financing Option Of Last Resort Essay

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There are many misperceptions among CFOs and finance executives when it comes to asset-based lending (ABL). The biggest is that ABL is a financing option of last resort - one that only "desperate" companies that can 't qualify for a traditional bank loan or line of credit would consider.

With the economic downturn and resulting credit crunch of the past few years, though, many companies that might have qualified for more traditional forms of bank financing in the past have instead turned to ABL. And to their surprise, many have found ABL to be a flexible and cost-effective financing tool.

What ABL Looks Like

A typical ABL scenario often looks something like this: A business has survived the recession and financial crisis by aggressively managing receivables and inventory and delaying replacement capital expenditures. Now that the economy is in recovery (albeit a weak one), it needs to rebuild working capital in order to fund new receivables and inventory and fill new orders.

Unfortunately, the business no longer qualifies for traditional bank loans or lines of credit due to high leverage, deteriorating collateral and/or excessive losses. "From the bank 's perspective, the business is no longer creditworthy," remarks John Barrickman, the president of New Horizons Financial Group, a financial services industry consulting firm headquartered in Atlanta, Ga.

Even businesses with strong bank relationships can run afoul of loan covenants if they suffer short-term losses,

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