Azule Finance, the UK-based broadcast and
media asset finance broker, has expanded its sales-aid finance
venture with Sony Financial Services (FS) into Germany.
The deal is an extension of the existing
arrangement between the companies in the UK, in which the
Berkshire-based company acts as one Sony’s vendor finance
partners.
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Peter Savage, managing director of Azule, said
the Germany market had been crying out for a broadcast leasing
specialist.
Azule’s relationship with Sony FS began in
2008 when it was asked to provide a specialised broker network for
Sony FS’ UK leasing program.
Savage said Sony FS was now writing three
times the amount of business it had been doing at that time, and
considers his brokerage to have played a major role in this
increase.
He said the success of the UK programme had
prompted Sony to commission Azule to review the German market.
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By GlobalDataAzule approached Sony with a proposal to
carry out an analysis of the German market,” Savage
commented.
“Sony agreed, and Azule identified a
number of German lessors that it would be advantageous for Sony FS
to have in their portfolio for broker-style introductions. We then
launched in September.”
Michelle Simpson, programme manager for Sony
FS, said Sony wanted to enhance its existing lease offering with De
Lage Landen by introducing a dedicated media and broadcast broker
model alongside it, and said Azule’s network and sector
understanding made it perfectly positioned to provide this.
Savage believes it is Azule’s experience and
knowledge of a specialist sector which has allowed it to be one of
the first UK brokers to successfully break into the German lending
market.
“We’ve been warmly received by the German
market; they recognise the fact the UK has got something they’ve
been wanting for along time – a specialist in broadcast and media,”
he said.
“In the broadcast market the UK is probably
ahead of the rest of Europe in terms of the maturity of the leasing
market so a lot of manufacturers are doing things in the UK they
are unable to do elsewhere in Europe.
“Germany is a similar sized broadcast market
and therefore is suitable for similar leasing deals.”
Azule and Sony FS’ German partnership already
has its first deal proposal underway.
grant.collinson@vrlfinancialnews.com
