Financing Growth
for Entrepreneurs

 

 

Trucks to South America:

A Brazilian national approached Gateway with a start-up company needing to purchase US-made pickup trucks to fulfill firm orders. With US residence and solid contacts in Brazil, the client still lacked the resources to purchase the trucks in the States.

Gateway arranged letters of credit from the client company’s Brazilian buyers and provided financing to the client company for the purchase of vehicles in several states. While the trucks were being moved to ports in Houston and Miami, Gateway managed the transport logistics and insurance of the vehicles.

The freight forwarder, who was responsible for storing and preparing the trucks for shipment, provided Gateway with documents to present against the buyer’s letter of credit.

Technical Outdoor Gear

Gateway was approached by a rapidly growing supplier of outdoor gear and apparel. Rapid growth was straining the company's ability to deliver. The company had an accounts receivable lender but needed additional resources to open letters of credit to Asian suppliers of specialized weatherproof outerwear. After checking the credentials of the company's management team, Gateway opened letters of credit and supported the continued growth of the firm.

Skiwear Experts

Gateway was approached by a burgeoning company that designed and marketed technical ski and outerwear under its own brand. The company had a commercial bank relationship but the relationship was not sufficiently large enough to allow for the opening of seasonal letters of credit to a critical Hong Kong supplier. The company's principals were very experienced, the customers well-established, and the Asian factory was a well-known high quality producer.

Gateway examined the order file and made arrangements for the client's bank to repay Gateway once merchandise had arrived in the US and was shipped to the company's final customers.

Gateway then opened the necessary letters of credit to land the client's merchandise and fill customer orders.

Fashion Skiwear Executive A distributor of European skiwear was presented with the opportunity to import some additional product lines. While the principal of the company had many years of management experience with various ski apparel makers and importers, he had limited working capital. The principal approached Gateway to provide letters of credit to purchase additional products.

Gateway’s personnel were familiar with both the proposed import product line and with the customers who had ordered the merchandise. Gateway was able to arrange for letters of credit to the client's European suppliers and for credit checks of its domestic retailers. Gateway allowed the merchandise to be shipped to US customers and collected the accounts receivable associated with the shipments.

Well-Connected Start-Up

A US-based distributor of European snowboards and bindings approached Gate- way to finance its import activities. The client, while a new business, had an excellent supplier relationship and a reliable production source. And because the product was widely distributed in Europe, quality issues were not a concern.

Gateway arranged for an independent credit check on the importer's end customers and verified the creditworthiness of the importer's order file. Gateway then opened the necessary letters of credit to three European countries and arranged for shipment to the final customers. Since the client did not have an accounts receivable lender, Gateway collected the client's accounts, repaid the amounts due under the letters of credit and remitted the balance to the client.