All articles by Fred Crawley
Fred Crawley
Q1 FLA figures reveal plant and machinery down 44%
The UK’s Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) has called for the British government to extend further support to bank lending in asset finance, as Q1 results for 2009 have shown a 44 percent interannual drop in finance for plant and machinery. Asset financiers are still writing plenty of business, commented Julian Rose, head of asset finance at the FLA, and more than £5 billion (5.7 billion) of asset finance was provided in the first three months of 2009
New thinking needed for success
Micro-ticket leasing an innovative and profitable new sector for lease business, or just a way to dress up small-ticket tech finance as the market continues to drive down electronic equipment prices?
Commerzbank’s potential KGAL sale on ice amid tax scandal
Germanys second-largest banking group, Commerzbank, finds itself in an interesting situation after its acquisition of Dresdner Bank, and may be looking to clear its plate a potentially difficult proposition with some of the funds acquired along with Dresdner inconveniently linked to the film industry. The Dresdner acquisition put Commerzbank in charge of the banks 45 percent, non-controlling stake in leasing and asset management giant KGAL, which despite seeing a 57 percent business reduction in 2008, still holds a 23 billion asset book.
New Global EPP-style case emerges
At the end of last month, Leasing Life learnt that a high-profile lease fraud case is emerging from the collapse of a construction and engineering plant hire firm, raising the spectre of the Global EPP administration and prompting serious questions about what lessors can do to shield themselves from fraud as business insolvency levels rise.
The Magician
Even for a man who knows his way around Turkish leasing as well as Blent Tasar does he purports to have been around since its foundation fighting a war against his countrys tax reforms was not an easy battle to win. At the beginning of 2008 the Turkish Ministry of Finance decided to adjust VAT rate for leasing from 1 percent to 18 percent As a result, says Tasar, at the beginning of last year, there was a 35 percent decrease in industry volumes from 6.3 billion to 4.1 billion compared to the previous year.
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Recession-free’ farm leasing the place to be for UK lease broker
There is currently no recession in British agriculture so says Paul McCarthy, managing partner of the AGF group, a unique alliance of brokers hoping to pick up what they see as the perfectly good business left behind by banks in their scramble to escape all corners of the equipment finance market.
Container lessors encounter turbulence
The container leasing industry has been caught in a tangle of powerful market forces for some time, as consumer demand has dropped and port volumes have melted away worldwide At the end of 2008, only one man seemed to have a smile on his face John Maccarone, the CEO of the worlds largest container lessor, Textainer, who said that 2008 had been a very good year for the industry.
LeasePlan scoops up Lex deal
Heating and electric specialist Hewer Facilities Management has acquired a fleet of 24 Citron Berlingo vans on contract hire with Lex Vehicle Leasing, with a further 11 to be delivered in late April on an agreement with LeasePlan subsidiary Automotive Leasing.
Lessors hit by Mid East slump in demand
European construction equip-ment manufacturers, resellers and lessors will face renewed hardship this year as demand for yellow metal assets in the United Arab Emirates slumps into what appears to be a terminal decline. With the UAEs construction boom withering, import rates from Europe have plunged, and regional used machinery prices are virtually half what they were 18 months ago. Demand in the Gulf has underpinned asset prices in many sectors, especially in con-struction, said Matthew Harvey, a partner at the law firm Denton Wilde Sapte
Deutsche Leasing to keep KBA funding lines fully open
Deutsche Leasing (DL) is determined to put some muscle into machinery-based vendor finance programmes this year on the back of the companys continued support for print finance subsidiary KBA Leasing. The company, a joint venture with German print manufacturer Koenig & Bauer (KBA), was started 11 years ago in order to provide finance for sheetfeed and web presses, as well as for more specialist machinery such as banknote presses. Despite making a 100 million operating profit in its web and special press division, parent KBA saw a huge loss of 80 million in 2008, due to massive restructuring andproduction shortfalls in its sheetfed pressbusiness.