'Drenthe offers plenty of opportunities to ambitious entrepreneurs,' says Emmy Saimi-Roozeboom, investment manager MKB Fonds Drenthe. 'Entrepreneurs who dare to stick their necks out. In an occasionally turbulent development of their business, they sometimes run into the unruly practice of finance. Everything revolves around money, tell an entrepreneur what! But how do you ensure continuity in that development of your business when you are innovative and want to make strides? This is where the MKB Fonds Drenthe is happy to show you the way.'
'I am pleased with entrepreneurs who recognize that our province in particular also offers plenty of opportunities and inspires entrepreneurship. In addition to other forms of funding, with our guarantee scheme we offer small and medium-sized businesses in Drenthe the opportunity to spread their wings without having to tie up their working capital. Because if your company
is just in a nice flow, then it can happen that your balance sheet explodes because your company is growing fast. There's a lot of money in inventory and accounts receivable. You need more skilled workers (and therefore more machinery).'
'If you have ambitious and promising plans with your company and your working capital is temporarily insufficient to realize them, we would like to sit down with you. We research your company, talk to you and your management team about the plans and goals. If we are comfortable with each other and we both feel that we can move forward together, then we can make an agreement.
'We want to make Drenthe entrepreneurs better acquainted with our guarantee scheme. When there is confidence in the company, people and plans, we ask Liberty Mutual, the largest guarantee insurer in the world, to do a so-called compliance check. This involves screening your company for compliance with laws and regulations and a number of conditions. If everything is in order, the MKB Fonds Drenthe guarantees payment to suppliers or customers should the company run into financial difficulties.
Tooling Holland, warm advocate
Chris Bus, CEO of Tooling Holland, a leading toolmaker in Emmen, talks about his experience with the SME guarantee scheme. 'We are a builder of high-tech injection molds for pipe fittings and crates. With these, our customers (including in India, North America, the Middle East and Europe) produce huge volumes of parts 24/7 for sewer and rainwater drains, among other things. We owe our right to exist to our innovations and production of high-quality injection molds. This is why a major Indian fitting manufacturer buys from us and not locally in India. Infra construction in India is experiencing a gigantic growth spurt, thanks in part to the Indian government's stimulus policy. To keep up with this customer's growth, our "state-of-the-art" dies are needed. So those run continuously to supply construction and infrastructure in that huge country.' '
Four years ago, we had a large amount of bank guarantees outstanding through the traditional banking circuit. This put too great a strain on our working capital position. That had to change. Because of our positive experience with MKB Fonds Drenthe, I was curious about the guarantee scheme they offer. It is ideal for capital-intensive SMEs that want to keep their liquidity in order and avoid a painful split in their working capital management. As you get more orders and grow, it is vital that you can move forward with alternative options. After corona came the war in Ukraine and our energy costs quadrupled. You don't catch that easily by making the customer pay for it.'
Down payment is commitment
'The lead time for our injection molds, from order to delivery, is on average 1 year. It is customary to ask for a substantial down payment for this. This is seen as commitment and co-financing by the customer you are dealing with. We start working for them and we want a partial payment for that, because we are not going to pre-finance everything. Through the regular banking circuit it goes like this: our customer agrees to a down payment of 100,000 euros. They then want a bank guarantee for that same amount. Then they have the security that if, for whatever reason, we don't deliver, they will get that 100,000 euros back. The bank then blocks that ton on your credit. When you're tightly financed that doesn't shoot up.'
Guarantee arrangement through MKB Fonds Drenthe
'Where the banks that are still around are less interested in SMEs, MKB Fonds Drenthe encourages companies in their growth. Those banks have left a gap, which MKB Fonds Drenthe has jumped into with conviction. There is definitely a market for their guarantee scheme, because there are many companies like us that need extra financial space from time to time. MKB Fonds Drenthe guarantees the agreed amount on reasonable terms, for which a guarantee has been issued by Liberty Mutual. And all that without seizing your working capital or credit, giving you temporarily more financial leeway. MKB Fonds Drenthe knows our company like the back of its hand, they know what's going on, what our business operations are like, et cetera. They issued a guarantee based on that information. That provided security for us and for our client.
The guarantee scheme is a fantastic backup to ensure growth. You need it precisely when you have to deal with peaks and troughs in your business operations. MKB Fonds Drenthe assesses whether a particular transaction with a supplier is justified or not and whether they will 'buck up' for it. They then provide a counter-guarantee to Liberty Mutual. Should things go wrong, the supplier contacts Liberty Mutual. The latter transfers the amount to that party and then switches with MKB Fonds Drenthe for the guarantee amount. The MKB Fonds Drenthe knocks on the customer's door again to talk about conversion into a loan or an equity stake.'
Funding ceiling
'When we were able to close a big deal with an American client, we were at our funding ceiling with the bank. That customer wanted a bank guarantee. MKB Fonds Drenthe offered us a piece of capital strengthening with its guarantee scheme, which allowed us to continue with our order book. It is good for the stimulation of
activity in this region to make use of this.'
Also take advantage of the Guarantee Scheme MKB Fonds Drenthe
Emmy Saimi-Roozeboom: 'Be ambitious as a Drenthe entrepreneur, have guts, make plans. This often includes risks. We can help you get funding for your plans that traditional banks are not willing or able to facilitate. We look beyond the ratios. And then it's mainly about trust. Like ambitious entrepreneurs, we dare to stick our necks out and take risks. It is such a shame if you are promising and get stuck in that development because of finances.
Emmy Saimi-Roozeboom is an investment manager at MKB Fonds Drenthe. A challenging field in which she, with over 30 years of banking experience, feels like a fish in the water. And also in the happiest province of the Netherlands (as recent research shows). This is where she comes from, as we proudly say in Drenthe. She grew up in Hoogeveen and has continued to live there, despite a career that 'logically' beckons the Randstad. Not so with Emmy, who is happy to facilitate entrepreneurs from Drenthe with well-founded plans for funding, complex or otherwise.