Robert Finfer quoted in The Washington Business Journal “Sources Say” Column
Author: integicp
What challenges have you had in getting financing in the past year?
“Financing continues to be challenging for our industry. While we saw a huge pullback during the last quarter of 2008 and in the first quarter of 2009, we are beginning to see cash come back into the market. The financing that is currently being offered and the terms at which we are being provided funds still need to come a long way to get back to the levels we saw in late 2007.”
— Robert Finfer, CEO, Integrity Capital Partners LLC and Integrity Settlement Group Inc.
“We haven’t needed growth capital recently, but certainly our banking relationship is ‘financing’ based. This relationship has remained positive, but that’s likely due to the fact we’ve had great success in managing our business around potential pitfalls by tightening our control of cash flow and boosting performance at all levels. Also, Spadac’s increased visibility as a leader in spatial analytics services and technologies has helped support this growth. We closed 2008 strong, our profits have continued to rise over the past three quarters, and we have strong expectations for 2009 and beyond.”
—Mark Dumas, CEO, Spadac Inc.
“We have not experienced any challenges getting financing, and I would say that there are two key reasons for this. First is past performance. We grew our top line significantly during the boom years (2006 and 2007), but unlike many companies that experience growth in sales, we did not sacrifice our bottom line. Similarly, we avoided both wasteful overhead spending and getting overleveraged during these same boom years. Instead, we hoarded cash. Second is a strong balance sheet. Our growth, coupled with conservative practices, has translated into a very strong balance sheet for our bankers to lend against.”
— Barry Lake, president, Rollins-PCI Construction Inc.
“Lately, financing has been tough. We thought we had a bulletproof business plan to get investors, but when we started talking to people it seemed as if everybody was burying their money in their backyard. We have had to scrape money out of wherever we could find it to keep our business afloat. We have not pursued bank financing as of yet.”
— Gregory Korthase, president, Etreev
“In executing an ‘alternative investment strategy,’ we’ve seen wonderful opportunities. With the cost of capital at all-time lows, we would love to finance as many opportunities as possible. The lending community is in disarray. Their margins have been all but eliminated, and it is coming to light that their financial reserves have been drastically understated. Yet the financial community says they want to issue good loans to good customers. We are learning how important it is that bankers understand our business, but it is equally important for us to illustrate how we as a client will be profitable for their business in the long term.”
— Craig Kendall, president, Financial Investments Inc.
Tags: Articles, Industry, Robert Finfer
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