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South Bend Fire Department <br />One (1)FinancialStability Response <br />00-12-1100 <br />FINANCIAL STABILITY SPECIFICATIONS <br />With high-profile instances of fireapparatus manufacturers encountering financial difficulties, it <br />is imperative that fire departments be diligent in evaluating the financial position of the <br />companies they solicit to build on their emergency response vehicles. A contract entered into <br />with a company on shaky ground is a dangerous prospect, since conducting business with a <br />manufacturer in suchcondition could open the department to monumental problems. <br />Take, for instance, the growing theme of manufacturersrequiringas opposed to offering pre- <br />payment and progressive payment options with a corresponding discount off the price of a <br />vehicle. Such offersaremade with an ulterior motive in mind, as it can be generally inferred that <br />manufacturersrequiringpre-payments and progressive payments do so because they need your <br />cashtoday to fund production of other vehicles already in the backlog. <br />Should problems arise, as has been thecase in situations too numerous to mention, your <br />department risks losing any down payments already made or even the entire cost of a piece of <br />equipment should certain pre-pay discount situations go awry. <br />While pre-payment discounts may be enticing, it is important to know justhow stable the <br />manufacturer seeking your funds is before you make that commitment. Ifyou enter into one of <br />these agreements and the manufacturer hits a rough patch, it is you that will be hurting, because <br />your funds may not be recoverable. However, if you enter into a contractwith a financially <br />sound manufacturer, youwill reap all of the benefits of a well-built truck ata lower cost. You <br />may equally, by taking advantage of the time-value of money, beable to afford more truck than <br />initially thought, because funds saved by leveraging pre-payment options could allow you get <br />some added features that you might not necessarily have been able to afford. <br />With this in mind, it must be noted that Rosenbauer is a companywith rock-solid financial <br />stability. This is a statement not made lightly, as we can prove it to you. We can provide <br />language that you can insert into your bid specifications that stipulates that in order for bids to be <br />accepted by a fire department, the company bidding must meet several fiscal criteria. <br />The first criteria call for the successful bidder to meet a debt-to-equity rationot exceedinga 2.0 <br />rating. Rosenbauer presently stands at a 1.51 rating, which is well-below the acceptedrating. <br />This low number results from Rosenbauer owning more assets with a marginal debt service. <br />This means we are not using lenders to fund our operations, nor our growth. <br />The second requirement is that the debt coverageratio of the successful body builder exceeds a <br />100 rating. The higher the number, the better ablea company is to meet its payment obligations <br />with banks and creditors. Rosenbauer’s number isat 279.6, which is nearlythree times the <br />10040-001909/02/20 <br />4 <br />PDF created with pdfFactory Pro trial version www.pdffactory.com <br /> <br />