Can you explain Quiksilver’s banking arrangements both in Europe and the US?
Our company, because it’s global, is really complicated with our banking arrangements. Not complicated in a negative way, just complicated. We started in Europe about the same time we started in America, and they of course through their own means had their own banking arrangements in Europe. As they grew they ended up having what’s called a club deal in Europe. I think there’s like ten banks that have a syndicate and finance Quiksilver Europe’s business, which extends from Russia all the way through Northern Europe, down in to the Africas, and that whole gamut. Everything they do is financed through this club banking arrangement. It’s led by a bank called Société Général. That’s how it’s always been, and there’s usually been no collateral and no guarantees because we’re so cash flow generative that they didn’t really need to have anything beyond that. So they had that arrangement over there and we have what’s called an A.B.L. (Asset Based Lending) system over here [in the US] led by J.
