FirstRand Banking Group has closed down Carlyle Business Finance
(CBF), its corporate asset finance subsidiary. The move comes just
over a year after the acquisition of Carlyle Finance and the
business finance division of Julian Hodge Bank by FirstRand’s
specialist asset finance division, WesBank.
At the time of set up CBF was headed by Garth Johnson, CEO
Carlyle Finance Group, and assisted by Neil Edwards CEO Business
Finance and Peter Coleman, director Business Development.
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The intention was for CBF to make major inroads into the UK
motor and asset finance market especially via the broker sector. As
part of the process the company even became a patron of the
National Associations of Commercial Finance Brokers and was
reportedly in discussion with a number of joint venture partners
and on the look-out for potential acquisitions.
Mark Standish, previously managing director of Carlyle Finance
has been appointed CEO of the automotive financing operation. He
told Leasing Life that, with a total of £50m in receivables, CBF’s
business levels were subscale and its margins too fine.
“The question was,” he said, “whether to re-position the
business finance division into the sub-prime sector and grow the
book from there. However, the necessary expertise to do so was not
currently possessed in house and the decision was taken to close
the operation.
Of the 10 staff employed three have been successfully
re-deployed.”
Standish claimed that Carlyle Finance remains a viable business
with its focus on the small to medium sized independent motor
dealer sector.
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By GlobalData“We have opened two new regions,” he said, “in east of England
and Scotland and installed throughout the company an electronic
point-of-sale system. The company employs around 60 staff and has
no branch offices.
“There has been a 20 per cent increase in new business levels in
our last financial year and we are finding that with the investment
from our parent company we can compete successfully with the large
motor lenders.”
