Dear readers, welcome to Basement Talk,
Leasing Life’s monthly diary page, filled with the latest gossip
and insight on the less visible aspects of the asset finance
industry
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Many have wondered how on earth the
litigation practice at Salans manages to get so much work done with
only one partner – and now it seems the law firm’s dark secret may
be revealed. While Salans was presenting at LL’s conference last
month, the books of the hosting Concorde Hotel showed not one but
two Kevin Heaths, suggesting that the fast-talking recovery expert
may be working alongside a doppelganger after all.
Trendsetters
Despite a mandatory black tie dress
code for this year’s LL awards dinner, some had no time for such
restrictions. One team in particular was showing off classy, but
distinctively not ‘black tie’ attire: Italy’s UniCredit Leasing.
Officially, this was because the team had had a company meeting in
Hamburg a mere hour before the dinner, but we suspect that any
leasing company headquartered in Milan is probably inclined to
write its own fashion rules.
Luca Lorenzi, the company’s general
manager and our “Functional Leader of the Year”, remarked: “Giving
up expensive suits has been a significant component of our
cost-cutting programme.”
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By GlobalDataSmashed
The Close Brothers leasing empire
has been praised for remaining not just active but aggressive in an
ugly market, and a large part of this toughness may be down to the
fact that its leadership appear to be indestructible. Close Leasing
director Neil Davies has been seen recently sporting a large
plaster cast, and a set of harrowing anecdotes about powerboats and
no-nonsense Caribbean bone setting. He received public accolade in
Berlin for reportedly doing up a bow tie using only one hand.
Lookey-likey
As an asset finance trade journal,
Leasing Life doesn’t get its hands on too many exciting press
photographs – the usual fare comprises pictures of relationship
managers standing in damp car parks, next to fleets of newly leased
vans.
However, we have to give credit to
prosperous new asset finance lender Aldermore, whose deputy CEO,
Mark Stephens, inadvertently recreated one of the most famous
portrait shots in American history when he posed for a recent press
release.
Leaston Blumenthal
For top-quality food at leasing
events, the industry really should be calling in more favours.
Gimmicky-yet-talented TV chef Heston Blumenthal revealed in a
Sunday Telegraph profile interview last month that one of his first
jobs was as a book keeper at his father’s leasing company. If we
can’t poach him for event catering, then, we can at least get him
to comment on lessor accounting – even if, in his own words, he was
“pretty rubbish” at it.
In Demand
Apparently, coming to our events can
mean instant job opportunities. UniCredit Leasing’s chief risk
officer, Jens Hagen (for the record, possibly the nearest thing
leasing has to Harvey Keitel’s problem-solving character in Pulp
Fiction), remarked dryly after his presentation on network
troubleshooting that he had received no less than four job offers
on his way from the stage.
Considering he already has to
commute to Milan from Austria to do his job, maybe he should have a
word with a Mr Heath about how to be in several places at once…
