Can you explain what structured finance is at the beginning of the interview?
It is basically the financing of foreign investments of Slovak exporters in such a structure that the investment credit provided by us is both a helpful instrument for financing the investment plans of exporters in the host country of export and at the same time feasible in terms of financing parameters, perhaps with a less conventional approach.
Can you be more specific?
Imagine that a Slovak company produces a product that is successful in Slovakia and decides to place it abroad. It chooses a host country, either within the European Union or outside it, in which it wants to build a production plant. Optimally, it will team up with an already established local partner who is more familiar with the market environment of the host country, including the marketing possibilities or the legislative environment. They will then enter into a joint investment agreement. This is where we come in. We can provide the exporter with a loan for the investment.
Tomas Kuruc is the director of Eximbank’s Structured Finance Department.
What do you consider during the loan approval process?
Every project is unique. First of all, we are interested in the specific business plan and the investment plan of the Slovak exporter with the calculation of the return on investment. This should generate a sufficient return to cover the debt service and the required rate of return on the investment for the Slovak exporter over a certain period of time. In parallel, we carry out sectoral analyses of the host country and assess its overall risk profile.
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