Cit And Thailand

[geriatrickid]

CiT is one of the most important financial services groups HQed in the USA.It provides the financing to mid and small sized companies, who in turn are the backbone of the western economy. It is CiT financing/factoring/leasing that allows these companies to purchase alot of imports, including those from Thailand. This company is on the verge of collapse. It is particularly important in terms of providing cash to the healthcare, entertainment, garment and sport industries. (Before you scoff, teams like Manchester United have financing from CiT as do some major garment retailers.)

A collapse could disrupt exports if customers can't finance the stock. CiT doesn't have an office in Thailand and instead relies on the Malaysia, Singapore offices to service the accounts. (There is a Chinese office but my understanding it's purely focused on the Chinese market.) This suggests to me that the Thai market will get flushed if the bankruptcy option is used on Monday. I know of one distributor that finances its stock with CiT. The loss of financing means it most likely wouldn't be able to buy from its Thai supplier and wham, there goes the Thai company's biggest customer. Although there are alternative suppliers, many of the Thai medical suppliers have excellent quality control (e.g. double washing of latex gloves, strict adherence on condom load yields etc.) and they would be sorely missed in the market.

I was wondering, does anyone know the exposure for companies in Thailand to CiT? I haven't seen any contingency plans from the finance ministry to help these Thai exporters. Anyone know what the situation is in Thailand? Does TG have any of its aircraft hulls financed with CiT or is it strictly AIG & GE capital financing. Thanks.

Edited July 18, 2009 by geriatrickid