Borrower Overview
TriLinc has provided financing to a borrower located on the Pacific coast of Ecuador. The borrower is an exporter of frozen seafood such as Chilean Hake, Mahi Mahi and Butterfish. The company purchases inventory from local fishermen, processes the fish in its modern processing plant and exports to customers located in the United States, Canada, France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. It is expected that financing from TriLinc will allow the company to continue its rapid growth in sales and number of full-time employees. Based on our underwriting findings, financing such as this resulted in a 37% increase in sales 2011 and an almost doubling of the number of full-time employees in 2012. Accounts receivable from international buyers, as well as the inventory of fish, provide collateral that helps supports the facility. Frequent inventory verification reports are issued by the local office of a major independent collateral manager.
Market Overview
Ecuador is the eighth largest economy in Latin America and is classified as a middle income country by the World Bank.1 Real GDP growth over the last 5 years (2008-2012) has averaged more than 4.5%.1 Since 2000 (2000-2012), real GDP growth has averaged nearly 4.3%.1 Major export sectors include bananas, shrimp, fish, petroleum, cacao, coffee, and wood.
Ecuador meets TriLinc’s country standards for its performance relative to key growth, stability and access metrics.2 In particular, we believe Ecuador scores particularly well versus its regional peers on a series of growth indicators, with low levels of public debt and moderate inflation in addition to strong historical growth.
Additional Sustainability & Impact Highlights
- The borrower purchases inventory from local fishermen, helping to stimulate the local economy.
- Our underwriting has determined that the borrower has experienced rapid growth, with its number of full-time employees nearly doubling in 2012 from the previous year, and continued growth expected.
- The borrower provided training and/or technical assistance to 100% of its employees in 2012, thus providing the opportunity for employees to improve their skills and knowledge base.
1World Bank, World Development Indicators Databank, June 2013 2There is no assurance that our investment in this company or this market will be successful or that it will have the desired impact.
The above information is as of the initial date of investment: June 17, 2013.
This borrower is no longer a TriLinc fund investment.
TriLinc originally performed an SDG mapping exercise in December 2017 to map all of our borrower companies, both current and exited from our portfolios, to specific SDGs based off of business activity. TriLinc’s official SDG alignment methodology was not finalized until June 30, 2018. For borrowers that had exited TriLinc’s portfolios prior to this time period, the selected SDGs for these borrower are a reflection of what TriLinc believes would have been the SDG alignment if 1) the SDGs had been in effect and 2) TriLinc had integrated the SDG alignment while the company was in the portfolio. The SDG mapping presented does not include input from Investment Partners or borrower companies given that the companies were no longer in the portfolio when the alignment was finalized.
An investment with TriLinc carries significant fees and charges that will have an impact on investment returns. Information regarding the terms of the investment is available by contacting TriLinc. This is a speculative security and, as such, involves a high degree of risk. Investments are not bank guaranteed, not FDIC insured and may lose value or total value. Some investments may have been made in an investment vehicle that is no longer open for investment. The highlighted investment may or may not have been profitable. There is no guarantee that future investments will be similar.
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