$US2B+ per year to smooth Cisco's sales path

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 12 December 2006 10:50

IT Industry - Deals

Cisco Systems has put in place $US2 billion per year of short term inventory financing for its channel partners in emerging markets and has expanded its end-user financing capabilities with new loan and leasing offers to customers in 15 countries.

Working with Cisco Systems Capital Corporation, Citibank, GE Capital Solutions and Standard Chartered Bank have between them have agreed to provide $US2 billion of short-term inventory financing capacity annually to Cisco channel partners in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Central and Eastern Europe.

According to Cisco, in many of the emerging market regions, working capital is not readily available, and channel partners face long order-to-cash cycles due to a variety of factors, including isolated geography and government regulations.

"To help grow Cisco's business in these regions, Cisco Capital has established strong relationships with its emerging market financing partners to help enable greater access to working capital, the lack of which has until today been a key constraint in achieving growth potential in these markets," the company said. "Cisco Capital works closely with its financing partners to implement the channel financing and to support the channel partners throughout the entire order-to-cash cycle."

According to David Rogan, president of Cisco Systems Capital Corporation, "Our financing partners provide both local presence and cross-border capabilities as well as an in-depth understanding of our Emerging Markets theatre. With nearly $US10 billion in third-party inventory-financing capability today, Cisco Capital has created and implemented a global banking infrastructure, providing significant competitive advantage for Cisco with limited financial risk to the company."