It is all go in
vendor finance right now, at least for the larger players in the
market.
GE Capital, hard-faced after months of
media hammering, told Leasing Life last month in a series
of interviews that it has signed as many as 26 new vendor finance
programmes since the beginning of 2010 (see GE
Capital back on the offensive).
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Its industrial segment, despite
recently losing its managing director, Marie Dunkley, is also said
to be going great guns – reporting 10 new deals in 2010 alone,
including several vendor finance (VF) deals.
This comes amid the signing of several
key VF agreements, all with global repercussions.
The key deal, and one which has been
tracked closely by this magazine, was the signing of historic new
lessor partnerships with Microsoft Financing.
Having axed CIT as a partner last
year, Microsoft Financing’s new alliances are with De Lage Landen,
SG Equipment Finance and BNP Paribas Lease Group. Key Equipment
Finance, which bid to join Microsoft’s panel, failed to get a
place.
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By GlobalDataAnother recent major development in
the vendor finance world has been an extension of BNP Paribas Lease
Group’s long-running agreement with Case New Holland (CNH). In next
month’s Leasing Life, we will profile CNH and several
other key European vendor finance programmes including De Lage
Landen’s exclusive alliance with Schmitz Cargobull.
Continuing on a vendor finance theme,
CIT reported last month in its first-quarter financial statement
that it had signed several new VF agreements in recent months, and
this had contributed to its net income for the period of $97m
(€73m). Notwithstanding this, and excluding factoring, CIT’s new
loan and lease volumes declined from the previous quarter to
$900m.
This follows a time of growth for the
specialist VF players, not least DLL, which during the latter half
of 2009 signed up with Nucletron, a Dutch company specialising in
anti-cancer technology, and Tech Data, a Florida-headquartered
distributor of technology products.
But the VF fires are not just raging
at the large end of the market. Even some smaller well-known
players are stepping-up the game, including Arbuthnot Bank, which
last month reported it had started VF programmes in the motor and,
interestingly, music sectors.
The new battle for market share in VF
has also spawned some odd new partnerships.
Back in 2008, CIT paid top rates for
the UK and German VF businesses of Barclays. Some say, although
this has never been corroborated by CIT, this contributed to some
of CIT’s subsequent and well-publicised woes. Evidence suggests,
however, there is little emnity between the two companies. After
all, late last month Leasing Life learned they had signed
a so-called vendor finance conduit facility worth some $1bn.
But let’s not get too excited. Many
vendor finance players are now buying programmes previously owned
by lessors that have now dropped out of the market. Still, like
professions financing, invoice finance and bank integration, VF is
all the rage right now. Long may it last.
Brendan Malkin
brendan.malkin@vrlfinancialnews.com
