Bluestone Leasing doubled the size of its sales force last year,
largely on the back of growth in its Turnkey Solutions
business.
Turnkey involves the creation – and financing – of new premises
for clients, including infrastructure such as furniture, IT and
telecoms equipment.
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Bluestone, which has 25 sales staff nationwide, currently
has a Turnkey deal on its books for an £18.2m investment in a data
centre for a client, its biggest deal to date.
The company has invested £150,000 in a new technology system,
which is being developed in-house. This is due to go live in the
second half of 2008 and will provide a one-fit system, from credit
proposal and documentation, through to back-office administration,
the company’s managing director,Vineesh Madaan, said.
Bluestone, which has 7,500 lessees on its books, uses a panel of
around 20 funders, of which ING Lease, Siemens Financial Services,
Key Equipment Finance, Co-operative Bank and Close Leasing are the
most frequently used.
“We are continuing to look for good staff across the UK and will
be satisfied if we are able to continue the level of growth we
witnessed during 2007,” Madaan said.
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By GlobalDataBluestone is also actively expanding its presence in the IT –
hardware and software – audio visual, bakery and catering
sectors.
CASE STUDY: A TURNKEY PROJECT
One recent Bluestone Turnkey involved the provision of funding
for a European-based company that wanted a prestigious presence in
London.
Bluestone MD Vineesh Madaan said: “Following an initial meeting,
we discovered the six-person satellite office was to be furnished
with the latest in design to create an ambient office space. This
included imported rock from Iceland and bespoke furniture from
Italy and Germany at a total cost of more than £250,000.”
Further discussions were entered into to confirm the funding of
the project. “The client,” Madaan added, “was extremely interested
in utilising our specialist interiors division to supply the
finance for the project.
“As the client’s UK presence was a recent occurrence, the
financial package Bluestone secured involved the European parent
company acting as a guarantor for the project. This enabled us to
lock-in a rate and term within the satellite’s budget for the next
five years.”
Madaan said many professional firms find lease finance
attractive because it allows them to return profits to the partners
rather than retain them in the business to fund investment.
“This,” he said, “can be of particular relevance where the firm
is also growing by way of acquisition and, therefore, wishes to
retain profits to fund expansion.”
