Fund Raising with Debt
Overview of Debt Funding
A large part of the cash management task is ensuring that there is sufficient cash on
hand to fund company operations. While some of this cash may come from company
sales and maturing investments, it is also entirely possible that the CFO must raise
cash from outside parties. A major source of funding is debt financing, which falls
into these categories:
• Asset-based financing. Company assets are used as collateral for this type of
debt. Examples are the line of credit, invoice discounting, factoring, inventory
financing, and leases.
• Unsecured financing. No company assets are used as collateral. Instead,
lenders rely upon the cash flows of the business to obtain repayment. Examples
are long-term loans and floating-rate notes.
• Guaranteed financing. A third party guarantees debt payments by the
company. Government entities, such as the Export-Import Bank, usually
provide these guarantees.