Raising capital.

Richard: Briefly, gentlemen, the word from head office is that they have studied your proposals with great interest, but they feel you have not tried hard enough to exploit other sources of finance.

Andreas: Other sources of finance?

Richard: Well, this is a Development Area. I think they mean government grants.

Hans: How can they say we’re not taking advantage of government help? We located our business in South Wales because of tax holidays, low business rates …

Andreas: I’m really surprised at the attitude of your head office, because they must know that we would only qualify for a very small grant. We’re not creating many jobs, we’re not doing anything for the inner city…

Richard: How about the European Regional Development Fund?

Hans: We want two hundred thousand, not two million!

Richard: Of course. Let me try regional head office again.

3. Прочитайте продолжение их разговора. Каким образом Ханс и Андреас убеждают Ричарда попытаться снова?

Richard: Do you have to be so dependent on external finance? Can’t you finance part of your expansion internally?

Hans: My business is showing a good profit, but I haven’t had time to build up any reserves …

Richard: No, no, no, I was thinking of Mr. Tsoulas. You said the family business was worth half a million. Can’t you get any more out of it? Sell some property? Move some of your assets over here as collateral?Why not get some members of your family in as shareholders?

Hans: I’m afraid that would not be acceptable. We agreed on equal representation of German and Greek shareholders.

Andreas: Hans, I know how we can do it. We’ll put in for a government grant, and ask the bank for a short-term loan till it comes through.

Richard: Well, I can try, but …

Hans: He means a loan from a Greek bank.

Richard: Oh! Well, I’m sure we can fix it for you. I’ll put it up to region again, but we must repackage it somehow. Suppose, some of your trucks, which at the moment are registered in Greece, could be re-registered in the UK? That might persuade them.

3. Прочитайте текст о расширении бизнеса, заполните пропуски данными словами:

assets collateral

create rates

development finance

exploit holidays

grants qualify

loans reserves

Financing a growing business.

When an established company needs to ____a____ further expansion, it can often ____b____ its own internal resources. One way to do this is to use profit from previous years as capital; but Hans has not had time to build up any ____c____. Another way is to sell off some of the firm’s ____d____ for cash. Companies sometimes sell their own factories or offices and then lease them back from the buyer. If the company uses its assets as ____e____ for a bank loan, the bank will normally take a charge over the property.

New businesses, on the other hand, can often get government ____f____, particularly, if they are located in ____g____ areas. They may ____h____ for grants, or they may be eligible for tax ____i____, low-interest ____j____ or low-business ____k____ for a fixed number of years, or assistance with finding and training staff. In return, the company will ___l____ new jobs.