All articles by Grant Collinson
Grant Collinson
Alphabet launches car-share lease scheme in UK
Fleet lessor Alphabet has launched a new type of corporate car-sharing scheme in the UK, designed to cut the cost of pool car fleets. The BMW-owned companys AlphaCity product offers a fleet of cars on a contract hire lease which can then be sub-let to employees for private use. AlphaCity was launched last month in Germany and piloted in France in 2010 in conjunction with Accenture, one of Alphabets clients.
UK government loan guarantees include leasing
Under the scheme, launched by Chancellor George Osborne the day before the Budget 2012, the government will guarantee £20bn of bank funding to lend to SMEs at a lower cost.
Fleet Friday: Ryder, Asset Alliance, Citroën
Commercial vehicle hire company Ryder has announced a £25m upgrade of its rental fleet in the UK, fleet lessor Asset Alliance has received a £25m funding injection and Citron has signed a contract hire deal .
New business and profit leap for BMW FS
The acquisition of ING Car Lease contributed 3.6bn in new business to BMW Financial Services (BMW FS) in 2011, while pre-tax profit at the group grew by 47.4%. The leasing and finance arm of the German automotive manufacturer reported a 13.6% year-on-year increase in new business volume, totalling 75.2bn for the year compared with 66.2bn in 2010.
Government grant helps HSBC asset finance
The leasing arm of HSBC helped electronic manufacturer Wrekin Circuits to purchase production machinery with additional funding from the governments small business grant. Under the arrangement, HSBC is providing funding of £84,000, with the RGF providing £21,000 to purchase an industrial drilling machine
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Volkswagen FS profit up 21.6% in 2011
The leasing and financing arm of Volkswagen recorded a 21.6% increase in net profit in 2011, reaching 978m compared to 804m the previous year. Sales revenue at Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS), which offers consumer finance, insurance and banks deposits as well as fleet leasing finance, increased 22.5% to 17.8bn for the year. The group reported 3.1 million new finance, leasing and insurance contracts were signed in 2011, a 16.2% increase on 2010
Debt-free Econocom takes a drop in profit
The integration of former Socit Gnrale subsidiary ECS has led to a drop in net profit at French IT and telecoms funder Econocom. Profit fell 25% in 2011 to 21.5m from the 2010 total of 28.8m, however, recurring operating profit, before amortisation of the ECS customer portfolio at 2m per year, was up 40% to 66.6m The integration of ECS, which Econocom acquired in late 2010, resulted in 14.9m of one-off operating costs, according to a statement from the company
IAA’s new man in China
Chan has more than 25 years experience in global leasing and structured finance, including his most recent position with BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions China, which he led from the start-up of the company in 2007.
Aldermore acquires £11.5m lease book
The asset finance arm of UK bank Aldermore has continued its part in the groups aggressive expansion with the purchase of a £11.5m leasing portfolio. The deal is Aldermores second portfolio purchase after it acquired £35m of assets from Heritable Asset Finance shortly after the asset finance division was created in February 2010
?400m pledged to Italian SMEs through UniCredit
The European Investment Bank has agreed a further 400m loan facility for UniCredit Leasing to fund SMEs in Italy. The loan is the latest in a series of funding arrangements made between the EIB and the lessors parent bank UniCredit. The most recent loan, announced when EIB President Werner Hoyer and Federico Ghizzoni, chief executive of UniCredit, met in Luxembourg this week, is aimed at companies with up to 250 employees and can cover up to 100% of the investment or 12.5m.