International Trade Solutions

EDC has a strong appetite for risk and a proven track record, particularly during difficult economic times. We also have the right mix of products and services, backed by advice from an unrivalled team of trade finance experts, to help you grow and protect your sales.

Depending on your unique business needs, we can work directly with you or partner with your financial institution to provide additional credit capacity to help you grow your business abroad. Our goal is to be your trusted partner, providing you with both the market intelligence you need to make informed business decisions and the insurance and financial solutions to support your international sales and investment activities.

For more than six decades, we’ve been helping Canadian companies like yours open the door to opportunities around the world. We’re here to provide you with answers and solve your trade-related business challenges, working with you, your bank or your foreign customer. If you want to learn more about how we can support your international sales or investments, visit www.edc.ca.

The role of Export Development Canada (EDC) is to support and develop the international business of Canadian exporters and investors.

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PROTECTING YOUR FOREIGN RECEIVABLES

› Protect your sales with a single customer or for one contract, or cover your entire book of receivables.

› Provide coverage for your foreign affiliates.

› Cover a wide range of commercial and political risks.

› Provide your customers with better payment terms and credit options.

› Free up your operating line with your bank by providing insurance as collateral for loans and guarantees.

EDC can offer you insurance solutions that will meet your unique needs and

protect you against a wide range of risks, such as your customer refusing to

pay, political instability and sudden contract cancellation. We can help you:

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GETTING THE FINANCING YOU NEED

EDC financing solutions can help you meet a wide range

of international business needs, from providing your

foreign customers with medium- or long-term financing

for larger sales, to providing you with working capital

support for export sales and foreign investments.

FINANCING TO GROW YOUR INTERNATIONAL SALES

A financial proposal is often a critical part of making a sale, and can be key to landing a contract. We can offer financing directly to your foreign customer in support of an export sale. When EDC provides a loan, we assume the risk of non-payment on that loan. An additional benefit is that payments are typically made directly to you as per the terms of your commercial contract. Essentially, this makes it the equivalent of a cash sale for you.

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FINANCING YOUR EXPORT- AND INVESTMENT-RELATED CAPITAL NEEDS

We can help you access additional financing to support your export-related activities and foreign investments by providing your bank with a guarantee. For example, we can provide guarantees on loans for buying equipment, financing work in progress or meeting export-related working capital needs.

FINANCING FOR INVESTMENTS IN OTHER MARKETS

If you want to invest in another market, perhaps by setting up a local office or a manufacturing facility, we can provide financing support directly to you or to the foreign affiliate or subsidiary or work with your bank to help meet operating line requirements. We can also offer insurance to protect your investment or assets against many political risks and help protect your money and get it out of foreign countries if controls are put in place.

Need specialized financing services?EDC can provide limited recourse project financing for large-scale global infrastructure and industrial projects. This type of financing support is typically required when the project sponsor needs to build, expand or acquire a project.

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FREEING UP YOUR OPERATING LINE

With EDC’s wide range of bond and guarantee solutions, you can free up your

operating line and cash flow to keep your business running smoothly, while

giving your bank the peace of mind it needs.

GETTING A BOND WITHOUT AFFECTING YOUR OPERATING LINE

Your customer or supplier will sometimes ask you for a bond, which is a sum of money held in trust as a guarantee of your performance. These bonds are issued by a bank or a surety company on your behalf.

Unfortunately, if your customer or supplier decides that you aren’t meeting the terms of your agreement, they can “call” your bond, which means your bank has to automatically pay the money to your buyer or supplier. Because of that risk, banks usually demand collateral from a company before they will post a bond. This, of course, ties up your cash. But you can avoid this problem by securing an EDC guarantee for your bank so it can get its money back if your bond is called.

If your bond does get called, you’ll have to reimburse EDC or the financial institution that paid the buyer or supplier on your behalf. Depending on the type of bond, however, EDC has insurance that can protect you from having to reimburse this amount in full if the bond was called for no valid reason.

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Did you know?› EDC has representatives in strategic markets around the world.

www.edc.ca/representatives

› We publish a quarterly magazine called ExportWise, dedicated to Canadian exporters and investors, www.edc.ca/exportwisemag and Global Export Forecast, a semiannual report examining Canada’s export potential. www.edc.ca/GEFreport

› We provide information on more than 200 markets through our online country portal. www.edc.ca/countryreports

PROTECTING AGAINST A CHANGING DOLLAR

If you want to purchase a foreign exchange contract to protect you against currency fluctuations, your financial institution will usually demand collateral. Our guarantees can satisfy that demand, thus freeing up your operating line.

OBTAINING A LINE OF CREDIT OR OTHER FINANCING FROM A FOREIGN BANK

If you need to secure an operating line of credit from a foreign bank, obtain letters of guarantee for suppliers, or meet landlord/lease obligations, your bank will usually demand collateral. EDC can offer a 100 per cent, irrevocable and unconditional, second-demand guarantee that can satisfy this demand and help free up your operating line.

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OUR COMMITMENT TO YOU

We are committed to creating solutions that meet the changing needs of Canadian exporters and investors. An integral part of that commitment is to work in close partnership with Canada’s financial institutions so that our insurance and guarantee programs can create more credit capacity and help you grow your export business.

If you would like more information, please visit

www.edc.ca

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