Recently formed Close Leasing has completed a £0.5m deal with
Sarantel Group Plc, which provides antennas for mobile and wireless
devices, bringing the number of deals it has signed its launch in
November 2007 to 40.
The subsidiary of Close Asset Finance, managed by Neil Davies,
the former managing director of Systems Leasing & Rentals, Paul
Bartley, the ex European business development manager of CIT, and
Tom Dramby, director of credit at ING Lease, targets deals that
fall between £500,000 and £5m in value.
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The deal was structured within the UK, and had no cross-border
element, although Close Leasing – and its parent, Close Asset
Finance – are seeking to build-up its portfolios of these sorts of
deals. Particular countries it is targeting are Gibraltar and
Germany.
Term of the deal, which was structured as a sale and leaseback,
is 24 months, and it is on finance lease. It is understood Close
Leasing initially rejected the deal but agreed to underwrite it
once the customer had raised additional revenue.
Neil Davies said that its deals arrangements have been affected
by the credit crunch. “In general terms seeing a general increase
in the cost of funds and margins, and that this has been passed on
to the client,” he said.
Some 70 per cent of the company’s deals come through the
indirect channel, of which about 70 per cent is from brokers and
the rest from referrals from lessors and professionals such as
solicitors, corporate advisers and accountants.
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By GlobalDataDavies said the company is on target for building a portfolio of
£0.5bn in three to five years.
