3月24日，香港著名财经媒体The Corporate Treasurer领英杂志对Thermo Fisher与积木盒子合作的核心商圈贷进行了大篇幅的报道，积木盒子首席财务官Barry Freeman也接受该媒体采访。
积木盒子的核心商圈贷是指以某个核心企业为中心，根据供应链中企业的交易关系和行业特点，对核心企业相关的上游或下游配套企业提供贷款的一种融资模式。Thermo Fisher是积木盒子合作的第一家核心商圈企业，积木盒子已成功帮助多家Thermo Fisher经销商企业募集企业经营贷款665万。
文章中写到Thermo Fisher在中国的成长，与此同时积木盒子首席财务官Barry Freeman也详细介绍了积木盒子核心商圈贷产品及其融资服务流程。
详细内容如下：
Thermo Fisher has set up a distributor micro-finance scheme with online financial service company Jimubox.
Born out of a merger between two of the United States' top laboratory equipment providers in 2007, Thermo Fisher Scientific is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and its stock is part of the S&P 500. After its $13.6 billion purchase of LifeTechnologies Corp in 2013, the company is one of the largest companies in genetic field testing.
Headquartered in Shanghai, Thermo Fisher has offices in 10 cities in China after the acquisition of LifeTechnologies. The nature of its business – selling analytical instruments, robots, laboratory consumables to hospitals, labs and research institutions – means it requires a large wealth of third-party distributors to handle its sales and delivery throughout China. Distributors can also help to compile multiple smaller purchases into larger ones.
In China, Thermo Fisher has distribution relationships with more than 300 companies. The financial health of those companies is, quite understandably, essential to the revenue growth of the medical and lab equipment maker. A distributor’s ability to procure Thermo Fisher’s equipment to hit sales targets is closely linked to the US multinational’s revenue.
Thermo Fisher has been successful in tapping China’s medical and lab equipment market’s rapid growth. Its revenue from China grew more than 20% in 2013, compared to its global average growth of about 3.5%, making $1.2 billion revenue in FY2013 in China. Thermo Fisher’s distributors – whose income can range from $100,000 to $50 million annually – are also growing fast.
DSO Restrictions
Thermo Fisher’s Chinese customers, much like those elsewhere in the world, can be relied on to pay their dues, but the disparity occurs in the amount of time it takes to receive payment. China’s state-operated hospitals are notoriously slow to settle their invoices, with payment periods typically ranging from three to six months.
“Sometimes a hospital opens a new wing, and our distributor may suddenly get a big order. It’s important that they get finance to buy the equipment to support the inventory request,” said Michael Shafer (pictured), CEO of Thermo Fisher’s China operations. The liquidity of distributors to make a procurement from Thermo in a timely manner affects Thermo’s revenue.
The average days sales outstanding (DSO) of Thermo Fisher’s 300-odd distributors is 120 days. But the US-listed company has a policy of trying to keep a rigid DSO of less than 40 days, although this differs from client to client. Thermo declined to comment on the reasons behind the rigid DSO requirement, but maintaining these standards can be difficult.
Obtaining loans from China’s local banks can be tricky for distributor-focused companies, making it difficult for them to tackle working capital issues. According to Shafer, the funding criteria set by the lenders is high and many of their offerings are better suited for manufactures, not distributors.
Given the situation, a typical distributor finance strategy as provided by most banks would require an explicit guarantee from the client that any failure to pay by the distributor would be covered by the supplier. For Thermo Fisher, this type of arrangement was not possible, although Shafer declined to say why.
To find a solution, Thermo Fisher struck up a relationship with Jimubox, a China-based online financial service company. In December 2013, the two kicked off a microloans programme geared to helping improve the working capital of its distributors. So far Jimubox has made approximately Rmb7 million worth of loans.
“Jimubox does not require loan guarantees from the MNC [multinational company] or any other type of legal participation in the loan programme, outside of the MNC verifying some of the credit data that the supply chain borrower provides to Jimubox,” Barry Freeman, Jimubox co-founder and CFO, told The Corporate Treasurer.
How it works
Jimubox undertakes a series of credit checks before it provides a loan. In the case of Thermo Fisher, it looks to establish how long the distributor has worked with it, annual purchases, and its financial performance and growth.
Typically, the distributors Jimubox lends to have business relationship with Thermo of more than three years. After assessment and due diligence has taken place, a one-year credit line is set up.
“When the sales persons go out to talk with the buyers, they don’t know whether they are going to buy it and how much are they going to buy,” said Shafer. But once a deal is sealed, the distributor needs to have the cash to hand to pay Thermo Fisher for the produce.
To meet these borrowing needs, Jimubox has set up a pre-application system, to establish financial eligibility before borrowing. The period is set at 12 months “as customer’s annual budget circle is about a year and there is no need to extend beyond that”, said Shafer.
The pre-application usually takes up to two weeks because “dealers usually take one to two weeks to supply Jimubox with the documents and information”, added Freeman.
After the distributor has signed off a purchase deal with the buyer, the loans can be transacted within 48 hours. It takes Jimubox one business day to finalise the credit file and complete the final risk management procedures, and one more business day to fund the loan.
Self-preservation
To ensure that the loans are used to buy Thermo’s equipment rather than competitors’ products, Jimubox will ask the distributor to provide two contracts: the purchase agreement between itself and Thermo and the purchase agreement between it and the customer.
After Jimubox validates the contracts, the distributor can then request a loan equal to or less than the value of the purchase order. The loan period is usually three to six months, in line with the payment schedule of the end customer.
If the distributor wants to return the money to Jimubox earlier than agreed, the distributor can pay the loan in advance without any fees or a higher interest rate. However, extending the loan is not allowed. "The distributor must repay the loan at the original maturity in all instances,” said Freeman.
Thermo Fisher is happy with the flexibility that Jimubox provided and will refer distributors to Jimubox. Through this lending programme, “our distributors are able to offer customers more flexibility of the payment time so that they can serve the customers better and grow faster”, said Shafer.
The loans provided by Jimubox to Thermo’s distributors are expected to triple within the next two quarters, Shafer added.
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