Melville Corporate Finance, Inc

Melville Corporate Finance, Inc. (Melville) is approached by a Canadian bottling equipment manufacturer to provide $3.4 million of capital investment foreign buyer financing to their customer, a rapidly expanding Chinese bottling company. The Chinese company needs to purchase the equipment and increase its production capacity to secure long-term, multi-million dollar contracts with Pepsi and Coca-Cola in Thailand. With very short deadlines, Melville's CEO works with Export Development Canada (EDC) to assess the risks involved in offering full financing and insurance for the Chinese bottler, and must keep in mind that the Canadian manufacturer will lose the sale if the financing does not get approved. The deal presents several challenges to Melville; an unknown foreign buyer with no proven credit history, language and communication barriers, geographic distance, incongruent accounting standards, etc. As the risk variables emerge, both Melville and EDC must decide if the stakes are too high to support the transaction.