2008 was a year of
panic as lessors responded to a crisis almost unparalleled in
economic history. Here are some of the highlights to remember:
Self delusion of the
year: HBOS
claiming nothing was wrong with its asset finance business.
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White elephant of the
year: Basel
II.
Biggest victims of
circum-stance: Universal Leasing (for being great, but
for just not surviving the crunch).
Warrior of the
year: Amstel
Lease (spent a year preparing for a merger with Fortis
Lease, and then on the day it was supposed to happen, Fortis got
nationalised).
Pioneers of the
year: Raiffeisen
Leasing International (for all those lovely windmills);
Eurohold (for getting
Deutsche Bank to lend them lots of money); New Century Finance (for financing
football transfers using Islamic finance structures).
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By GlobalDataFrauds of the
year: Global EPP,
Thorneycroft.
U-turn of the
year: Fortis Lease
Group (for opening offices in 2007 in Finland, Hungary, Hong
Kong and Singapore, and then closing them down in 2008).
The marriage that
never was: VR
Leasing and Banca
Italease.
The marriage that
might happen: CIT and Siemens Financial Services.
Arranged marriage of
the year: HBOS
and Lloyds.
Best marriage of the
year: Intesa
Lizing and SanPaolo
Lizing.
Best
turnaround: St
Helen’s Finance (from loss to profit in one year).
Most energetic of the
year: Basil
Bannayi for riding a 1000cc Honda SP2 and running Surrey
Asset Finance, a very smooth operation.
Country causing most
obsession among lessors: Brazil (entered in recent
months by MAN Financial Services, Scania Financial Services,
SG Equipment Finance, and Heidelberg Financial Services).
Lost in transit
award: BNP Paribas
Lease Group and UniCredit
Leasing (for trying to get to Russia, but deciding it was a
bad idea).
Most astute
restructurings: ING
Lease and HSH
Nordbank’s decisions to get rid of their forfeiting
(refinancing for leasing companies) arms.
Making the most of
it: LPM
Outsourcing (for increasing invest-ment in back office
systems when everyone else’s are closing down).
Funniest
transactions: Bolton street sweepers, loo leasing in
Liverpool, €100 million lease of police cars in Romania (actual
value of police cars: a lot less), and various deals of single bits
of unimportant equipment (eg an airport trolley, a Dutch made
wheelchair).
Shindig of the
year: Leaseurope,
Leaseurope, Leaseurope, HBOS’ clay pigeon shooting away
day.
Busiest in
2009: Sales finance, turnaround and restructuring
specialists, lawyers and accountants.
Least convincing
claim: “It’s business as usual.”
Those least likely to
enjoy 2009: British brokers.
