Escrow Services
INTRODUCTION TO ESCROW
What is an Escrow Agency?
An Escrow Agent is a third party (an individual or a legal entity) trusted by all parties involved in a transaction who ensures the efficient, prompt, and safe implementation of the purchasing and selling of goods, products, or services both locally as well as internationally.
Procedurally, it works as follows: The Escrow Agent accepts funds from the purchaser into a bank account controlled by him (the "escrow account") and confirms to the seller that the funds are securely held pending delivery or confirmed shipment of the relevant goods/products or, in the case of other types of transactions such as financial, some other relevant and pre-agreed confirmation. An Escrow is usually used in cases where there is no trust between the parties of an agreement concerning the fulfilment of the agreement’s conditions and generally to avoid any disagreements and delays.
Using an Escrow bank account is a useful business tool in a number of instances, including the acquisition of companies, when buying or selling commodities, shares and bonds , real estate, and when executing construction projects.
How do escrow accounts help ensure the safe execution of an agreement? On the one hand, buyers seek cash collateral security to cover the sellers’ liabilities while on the other hand sellers seek payment security by ensuring that the purchase price is secured. For such trading transactions, escrow secures the payment obligation of the buyers and the possible non-performance of the sellers. For international construction projects, escrow provides a solution for complex cross-border transactions.
Profel’s Escrow services provide trusted, third-party business solutions securing buyer’s and seller’s obligations in corporate acquisitions, ensuring the prompt settlement of obligations in trade transactions, and setting up the necessary payment guarantees for international construction projects.
Our aim is to ensure a secure and successful transaction that is fair, efficient, and effective to all concerned.
Our services include: Corporate Escrow services, Trading Escrow services, Construction Escrow services.
Corporate purchase Escrow Services
A company is to be sold. When purchasing, the buyer takes into consideration certain risks associated with the transaction. But what about possible unexpected liabilities revealed by the due diligence survey?
How can the buyer be protected against, for example, lack of appropriate licenses and permits? How about the departure of personnel vital to the operations of the business? Additionally, what about serious financial underperformance, and/or other internal threats? A prudent buyer will require complete coverage for these potential liabilities.
On the other hand the seller needs to be assured of payment in the event that no liabilities are found.
How can all these risks be dealt with? As escrow agents we set up an agreement to retain a certain amount of the purchase price in the “escrow account”. Buyer and seller reap the benefits of the escrow agreement, where the release conditions of the blocked funds are negotiated and agreed by the two sides to their mutual satisfaction. As both buyer and seller seek maximum security, PROFEL is a natural choice, with the experience, skills and capacity to act on short notice. Other escrow applications are: securing performance bonds, bid bonds, multi-party investments, and fractional ownership structures.
Trading Escrow services
Consider this case: Your Company enters into a trading transaction with previously unknown parties. As the seller, you want protection for non-payment by the buyer.
However, if you are the buyer, you need assurance that the seller will deliver. Both the buyer and the seller can benefit from escrow in order to secure the transaction.
Advantages:
Escrow transactions are both fast and risk free. This is simply achieved by us taking the necessary steps to ensure buyers actually have the funds available to buy your goods and services. Often a customer will provide a bank reference proving his ability to purchase today. However, in the current economic conditions that may not be true in the very near future. Using our Escrow services we can arrange for the buyers’ funds to be blocked in our Escrow Account from the commencement of the agreement and for a pre-agreed period of time, thereby, ensuring payment and the successful completion of the transaction.
Furthermore, the escrow arrangement between the same buyer and seller can be used for repetitive transactions. More specifically, here’s how it works: the buyer prepays the agreed amount to the escrow account. We confirm receipt of this amount to the parties. The seller ships the goods and sends the bill of lading to the escrow agent. The escrow agent dispatches to the buyer the bill of lading and any other relevant certificates. Simultaneously, the seller is paid out of the amount in escrow.
Acting as a trusted third party, PROFEL provides both buyer and seller with the required security.
We are able to complete transactions, irrespective of size, usually within a few working days. This helps your cash flow and enables you to have more time and resources available for business development, growth, and customer satisfaction.
Customer satisfaction:
Problematic buyers continually scan the market for new suppliers. Often friendly new and potential customers may suddenly turn into a business nightmare. Through our escrow services we ensure that a procedure for the related purchase is agreed to with the new buyer from the initial stages of the transaction thereby maintaining a mutually satisfactory relationship, thus resulting to a lasting business relationship.
Construction Escrow services
For international construction projects, there are many possible uses of escrow services such as the financial settlement by the escrow agent as the trusted third party, the distribution of funds, debt restructuring, etc.
In the case of financial arrangements for construction projects, the principals might require performance guarantees while subcontractors are in need of payment security. PROFEL can provide a solution satisfying all of the above requirements, such as setting up the relevant account, managing the funds, and distributing payments. PROFEL expertly negotiates and executes all the relevant steps in the agreement relating to the release conditions for complex cross-border transactions achieving the required security for all parties concerned.