LEASING LIFE’S MONTHLY PROFILE OF A DEPARTMENT
WITHIN A EUROPEAN LEASING COMPANY
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Company: Davenham Group plc asset finance
Department: Sales
Head of department: Guy Wadsworth
Number of sales staff: Eight
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By GlobalDataHead office: Manchester (handles collections,
underwriting, back office, risk, credit, documentation)
Regional sales offices: London, Bristol,
Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle
Target market: SMEs with annual turnovers of
between £1m and £20m
Guy Wadsworth, head of the sales division of Davenham, a
Manchester-based specialist commercial finance lender to SMEs, has
a challenging year in front of him. Amidst the credit crunch the
asset finance arm has been given a target of growing its portfolio
by 50 per cent over the short to medium term.
This follows a period of tightened lending at Davenham, which is
listed on AIM, although this has mainly been in its property
finance business (see financial update on Davenham on page 15). Its
asset finance arm has bucked this trend with sales having grown 50
per cent in the last six months. Last June was the best month for
asset finance sales in the company’s history.
Part of this growth has come about as a result of internal
changes instituted by Wadsworth. These have put greater emphasis on
small ticket funding, particularly deals worth less than £25,000,
and also on structured deals that involve a range of types of
financings, including asset finance and sales finance. Another area
of greater focus is refinancing transactions for companies going
through restructurings, MBOs and MBIs. “We have a flexible approach
to structured lending,” Wadsworth said, adding that his business
has also seen growth on the back of competition leaving the
marketplace and banks underwriting less business.
Matching this growth, Wadsworth, who reports to Tim
Morris, head of asset finance at Davenham, is keen to grow his
division, and is about to hire extra sales people.This should not
be hard considering the fact that a large number of leasing
specialists are looking for jobs following a flurry of closures of
leasing departments by banks and independents. “We are seeing more
people available on the market to recruit,” said Wadsworth.
It is also helped by fast credit turnarounds with decisions on
larger deals being made within four hours. Its Manchester office
handles such work along with underwriting, documentation and
collections.
In excess of 90 per cent of this business it will be sourced
from brokers, its traditional route to market. Generally brokers
are today “a more acceptable source of business for funders” ,said
Wadsworth, who has been at Davenham for 12 years and in his current
post for four years. He has no plans to change this, particularly
as the credit crunch has given rise to “more people looking at the
broker market”. Its sales staff are tasked with finding new
brokers, and visiting clients who have finance deals worth above
£50,000.
The division has room for growth, although it considers itself
to be a national firm. Meanwhile, it looks forward to continued
economic challenges as a means of assisting a business model that,
judging by recent performance, is riding high.
Brendan Malkin
LEASING LIFE’S MONTHLY PROFILE OF A LAW FIRM’S
LEASING DEPARTMENT
Firm name: DWF
Head of department: Alan Cunningham
No of full-time AF partners: Seven
(transactional), Seven (litigation)
Offices: Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Preston,
London
AF sectors: equipment, vehicle, specialist (including aviation
and marine), consumer and regulatory, receivables
Following its merger with Ricksons in 2007, DWF is continuing to
pursue a period of aggressive expansion with two new office
openings in Leeds and London this year alone.
Despite being a nationally based firm, the asset finance
department does not shy away from cross-border transactions, in
particular on aviation and marine deals. It has just closed two
aviation deals in Denmark this month, along with marine deals in
Kazakhstan and Cyprus.
But it is also a leader in small ticket transactions advising on
many “bread and butter” plant and machinery deals, as well as being
prominent in the printing, glass and agricultural industries.
The department, however, is currently taking a more conservative
approach to expansion, according to Alan Cunningham, who heads the
asset finance team.
The latest significant new appointment was Stuart Stones, who
joined as an associate in the Manchester office last year. However,
Cunningham predicts that the department will recruit a new
transactional lawyer within the next six months.
The lack of growth in the size of the team, however, does not
reflect its organic growth. The department’s turnover increased by
an impressive 40 per cent in a year. Despite this, its target for
next year is a more modest 15 per cent.
Although its asset finance lawyers are mainly found in the
Manchester office, this is as much by accident as being a strategic
decision to keep a core centralised team.
Recognising that its clients and potential recruits are spread
nationally, the firm takes a flexible approach, which allows it to
be able to move an entire team to suit a client’s needs if
necessary.
Cunningham himself has an enviable international profile having
previously worked for Norton Rose in Paris and Richards Butler in
Hong Kong. Originally attracted to work in asset finance because of
large complex deals such as those in oil or construction, he is now
a respected lawyer in the industry, particularly in aviation. Its
high profile client base reflects the department’s capability to
compete with large international firms. Amongst them are large
banks such as LLoyds TSB and the Bank of Scotland. Other notable
clients include Close Asset Finance, RentSmart and Kaupthing Singer
& Friedlander.
Helena Duong
