Despite the grim outlook for the UK broker
sector, one resilient lease arranger based in Gwent seems to be
weathering the storm through careful placement of deals across the
whole of Europe, seeing £15 million of business during March
alone.
Oak Leasing, founded in 1992, is
targeting the European shipping finance market in 2009, currently
processing around £30 million in nautical business sourced in
Turkey, the Netherlands and Germany.
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Vendor partnerships
In addition to this, the broker is
pursuing vendor partnerships with manufacturers in the tech and
office equipment sectors.
Oak started the year by arranging a
large UK import and lease arrangement of medical equipment from a
US supplier, and didn’t stop there.
Now, fresh from launching a vendor
arrangement in Germany and the UK with photocopier supplier Utax,
Oak is now preparing to embark on three new partnerships in
April.
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By GlobalDataOne of these will target the education
sector, while another will involve a major funder from the Far
East.
But despite these focuses for 2009,
Oak intends to pursue beneficial deals in all markets. Next month,
for example, will see Oak finalise a deal with a local authority in
Amsterdam, for the lease of a state of the art amphibious bus by
Volvo. Funding will come from a well-known German provider.
Managing director John Barter, who saw
out the 1979 recession with Hamilton Leasing, and founded Oak in
the middle of 1992’s downturn, says that Oak’s continued health
rests on knowing which areas to invest in – and which areas to
avoid.
Talking about the office equipment
sector, he estimated that the UK’s major banking lessors
historically accepted roughly 80 percent of photocopier lease
proposals – but that this figure had now withered to around 30
percent.
His plan for Oak is to pick up the
deals left by the wayside in this fashion, placing them with a
selection of smaller and independent funders.
When 2009’s full year reporting takes
place, he suspects that big balance sheet lenders may have deserted
the office sector further.
The start of March saw Oak take on two
new board members: NACFB director Stephen Bassett (formerly of Wyse
leasing); and Jonathon Silver, who has experience both as a funder
and as a lawyer.
IT push
In addition, Oak’s continued push on
the IT and photocopying front will be reinforced by the addition of
Derek Basten to its sales team, bringing more than 20 years of
sales-aid experience to the broker’s table.
Also in 2009, Oak will continue to
develop its web presence with a leasing blog
(http://oaklease.blogspot.com/), and
a highly active website that claims to be the UK’s most popular
site belonging to a leasing company.
