Visit the new Octet website. - Octet Finance

In late 2009 Octet opened its
Business Transaction Portal to
the North American market in
partnership with North
American working capital
financiers to provide a system
similar to that operating in
Australia, New Zealand,
China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
In response to increasing demand from
existing Octet members who are trading
with companies in the United States
through its portal, we are now delighted
to announce the opening of our own
office in Los Angeles. As is the case in
Australia, businesses and particularly
small to medium sized businesses in the
USA are impacted by the general lack of
available financing options for their
working capital requirements – Octet
seeks to address this imbalance in the
US market.
Clive Isenberg, Managing Director of
Octet says, “Our new LA office will be
headed by Daniel Mafrice in the
capacity of Executive Vice President
Business Transaction Specialist, and
supported by Ronny Grunwald. They
will assist existing members who are
Octet’s Total Working Capital Solution for Businesses
Octet has now expanded its
working capital finance
product offering to provide an
all encompassing solution for
SME companies.
Octet’s Total Working Capital Solution
provides an integrated offering to
companies that can finance domestically
and internationally both purchases and
sales, and provide other working capital
requirements that will fund growth. This
is particularly important in the current
climate where the availability of credit
for business particularly SME’s,
continues to be scarce due to the lack of
funds available from traditional financial
institutions.
Clive Isenberg, Octet’s Managing
Director, says, “In order to fund growth,
businesses are actively seeking ways to
optimise cash flow by scrutinising their
own balance sheets and exploring non
traditional funding options. Octet is now
in a position to provide the solution.”
“Octet’s Business Transaction Facility has
traditionally been used to optimise
Octet Opens LA Office
10850 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 1265,
Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
either exporting to or importing from
the US to increase their trading volumes.
Businesses in the USA face the same
challenges as those in Australia
especially as far as the importing and
exporting process is concerned. Even if
they can achieve competitive product
cost structures through importing, the
general lack of working capital finance
can prohibit success in the marketplace.
Octet’s Business Transaction Facility will
help US businesses to bridge this gap in
their working capital finance.”
Daniel Mafrice, Executive Vice
President Octet in LA, says “There have
always been large demands and
insufficient capital resources dedicated
to financing businesses in the USA.
Although US companies strive to
become more cost competitive both
domestically and globally by outsourcing
their production costs and importing
goods from lower cost labour markets,
they still suffer dramatically from the
business cash flow by reducing the
critical timing gap between cash
payments to suppliers and cash receipts
from customers. With the recent
introduction of the Total Working Capital
Solution, Octet can now provide funding
against the business’ accounts receivable
and other asset based security.”
Octet’s accounts receivable and asset
based funding will be an additional
source of finance available for
businesses when the unsecured line
of credit is insufficient to meet their
needs. The asset may be fixed,
such as property, or a current
asset such as trade receivables.
The business will have the
flexibility to draw down cash to
the value of the facility limit or
to allocate an amount to utilise
under their Purchase Facility.
Clive explains, “This is a true
innovation for Australian businesses
because it will provide an effective
solution to maintain their working
capital flow. There is no other facility in
working capital constraints importing
puts on their businesses.”
“The Octet product is a true innovation
to the US marketplace. Octet offers
businesses the ability to match the
timing of their cash flow needs to that of
their vendors and customers. It bridges
the major time gap and burden that
importing puts on working capital and
cash flow needs. While there are other
competitors working on building similar
products, none seem to provide the
direct solution for increasing business
working capital flow like Octet’s
platform. I believe that Octet’s approach,
which causes no interference with
current transactions and ordering
processes, makes it a key differentiator
to other products in the market for
businesses seeking import and
exporting finance. This makes it the
best choice for businesses.”
the Australian market like the Octet
Total Working Capital Solution. Whether
your business is purchasing, selling or
simply needs additional working capital
finance to fuel growth, Octet can
provide all of the above.”
Patrica Kruse
National
Manager
Marketing and
New Membership
Patricia Kruse joined Octet in 2007,
bringing with her a wealth of knowledge
in trade and financial services. Patricia
has worked in the financial services
sector in both Australia and the United
Kingdom for over 16 years with a
particular emphasis on SME financial
management.
Patricia has put her Masters of
Commerce to good use; initially at the
State Bank of New South Wales, then in
underwriting at Trade Indemnity (now
known as QBE), before moving into
working capital finance and joining Clive
Isenberg at Scottish Pacific Business
Finance (SPBF). Patricia worked at SPBF
in Australia and its sister company
Kellock (part of Bank of Scotland) where
she was seconded to the United Kingdom
and Amsterdam. It was during her time at
Kellock that Patricia was introduced to
the excitement and challenge of
international trade finance.
Patricia said, “I was exposed to
international trade finance when I joined
the marketing committee of the world
factoring body, Factors Chain
International, in Amsterdam and it was
something that immediately interested
me. As a non-executive member of the
committee I travelled to numerous
conferences and seminars on
International Trade Finance in the USA,
Norway and the Philippines. I learnt a
great deal about the difficulties faced by
SME’s in the international trading
environment.”
The ICAA Business Forum,
held annually in cities around
Australia, offers Chartered
Accountants a diverse,
engaging and interactive
conference program to
essentially workshop and
refine their professional skills.
Octet was proud to be a sponsor at the
ICAA Business Forums held in May 2010 in
both Sydney and in Melbourne. The Sydney
Forum attracted approximately 1,800
attendees, including Chartered Accountants
from the profession and industry. Similarly
there were 1,200 delegates in Melbourne.
Octet sponsored and chaired five separate
workshops during the two Forums and also
ran business card draws with a prize of a
$500 Octet Visa Card in both cities.
“When I returned to Sydney in 1999 I
moved into new business development at
St George Bank, but eventually found my
niche alongside Clive Isenberg at Octet
Finance in 2007.”
“Although Octet is a relatively young
organisation, I was drawn to the
challenge of building up a business that
has a unique funding and trading
platform at its centre. I believe that the
Octet concept and process developed by
Clive has all the features to benefit
business whether they are big
conglomerates or SME’s. Octet’s Total
Working Capital Solution offers all these
companies the ability to fund both
purchases and sales (domestically and
internationally), and other working capital
requirements to promote growth. This is
particularly important in the current
global financial climate where the
availability of credit from traditional
lenders continues to be an issue.”
“As a sales executive, it is really satisfying
to see the positive impact that Octet’s
Total Working Capital Solution has made
to our client’s businesses. Helping our
clients to grow and thrive despite the
fiscal scarcity in the current market
demonstrates the effectiveness of the
Octet solution.”
Primarius Resource Management and
Alliance Group HK has partnered with
Octet Finance to provide savings and
improvements by sourcing and managing
product supply in smarter ways.
Primarius’ focuses on improving inventory
usage, which in turn improves working
capital utilisation and increases
profitability.
“What we do is provide companies with
the ability to understand product demand
and create forecasts for the products they
sell,” said Paul McCarthy, a director of
Brisbane-based Primarius Resource
Management. “We then use our planning
tools to construct purchasing plans that
increase stock turn rates and minimise
product stock-outs. We’ve been working
in China for a long time and have been
sourcing product via our strategic
partners, Alliance Group HK, for
Australian businesses.”
“Alliance takes out all the headaches for
our customers. They have offices all over
China, they share the same language and
cultural background as the suppliers, and
they know how to negotiate. Alliance are
linked into our forecasting and demand
planning systems, and they can feed
forecasts to the suppliers so that
suppliers know what our customers need
all the time, even identifying when
products could run out of stock and be
able to do something about it. This has
made a huge impact in reducing costs
and lead-times”.
Willy Bagg, a Chartered Accountant and
Octet Business Transaction Specialist, said
“These forums provide an intimate and
direct way in which to educate the
accounting profession on alternative,
creative and non-traditional forms of
financing that are available to SME’s other
than from traditional banks. Accountants are
trusted advisors to their clients so
they need to be aware of all
available financing options to be
able to provide the value-added
services that make them
important to their clients. We also
need to let Accountants know that
accounting practices can offer
Octet as a payment mechanism
for their clients. This enables the
accounting practice to be paid
quickly while still offering terms
and a reward program to the client”.
Primarius Resource
Management uses
Octet to add value
and reduce costs
Octet Communiqué / Quarter 3, 2010 More power to trade For assistance with your Octet Facility phone: 1300 8 OCTET Visit: octetfinance.com
When Octet released their Business
Transaction Facility for China-sourced
inventory, Primarius immediately saw the
benefits it could offer its customers. “We
saw a fantastic opportunity to further
decrease costs and improve value for our
customers by working with Octet. I
contacted Michael Knauf in Octet’s
Brisbane office and we pulled apart the
service offering we could provide. Our
idea was pretty simple – use our sourcing
ability from Alliance to find suppliers who
could produce the ‘right’ quality products,
on time, every time, and at quantities
that suited our Australian customers, and
utilise the Business Transaction Facility
with Octet to improve payment terms.”
“Our China-based partners, Alliance
Group HK, were happy to become
involved and our concept became quite
simple – for companies wanting to source
product on a consistent basis from China,
Alliance would source the product, handle
all negotiations with the original suppliers
and manage all China-based logistics. In
the Octet system Alliance became the
supplier and gained first-hand experience
in how simple and effective the system
could be. We have two clients using the
system at the moment, with great
results.”
Octet Sponsors the Institute of Chartered
Accountants in Australia (ICAA) Business Forum
Octet’s ICAA sponsorship and participation
in the forum resulted in many enquiries both
during and after the show, allowing Octet to
communicate directly with accounting
professionals and providing the opportunity
to form relationships that have a mutual
benefit.