All articles by Claire Hack
Claire Hack
Profits soar at Johnson & Johnson Finance
Johnson & Johnson Finance strengthened margin on the back of a solid sales performance in the year to 3 January 2010. Pre-tax profit soared by 270% and after-tax profit was up by 80% for the year
HVCS gains in public sector
Hitachi Vehicle Capital Solutions (HVCS) reported a rise in turnover of 3.77% to £108.9m (133.2m) in the year to 31 March 2010. Profits after tax more than tripled to £8.1m in the year to 31 March 2010, up 324% from £1.9m in 2009.
Academies bill to boost schools’ IT leasing
A generation of new academy schools in the UK could boost business for lessors as they seek to invest in IT equipment. The Academies Bill will allow schools deemed outstanding by education inspectorate Ofsted to opt out of local authority control by September 2010
In France, flat is the new up
French SMEs are reluctant to spend as long as the economic outlook remains uncertain.Claire Hack reports from Paris on the state of French leasing. The running joke within French leasing is that lessors have been saying they are cautiously optimistic for so long that the phrase no longer has any meaning
Top lessors ranked for 2009
European leasing body Leaseurope has released its ranking of the top leasing companiesin the continent for 2009, with some notable changes to the top 10. UniCredit Leasing lost its 2008 number one ranking in terms of new business in Europe, dropping to fourth place. Deutsche Leasing came in third, while SG Equipment Finance moved up to second and BNP Paribas Equipment Solutions took the top spot, with about 12.5bn of new business in Europe in 2009.
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HSBC sells last US car finance businesses
UK banking giant HSBC today completed the sale of its remaining US consumer car finance portfolio to Santander Consumer USA (SC USA) SC USA paid approximately $3.56bn (2.82bn) in cash, as part of HSBCs move out of the American consumer lending market, following the write-off of billions of dollars of US loans.
Bidding war outcome could affect leasing at Dell, HP
A bidding war between Dell and Hewlett Packard (HP) has erupted over a virtualised data storage systems vendor, with potential implications for the financing arms of the two companies.
Mixed first half for VR Leasing
German lessor VR Leasing has seen a mixed financial performance in the first half of 2010, its latest results show As part of its prudent risk policy, VR deliberately pulled back from writing new business In Germany, new business volumes in H1 2010 declined 17.5% to 909.6m, down from 1.1bn in H1 2009.
HPFS enjoys Q3 rise in revenue
HP Financial Services (HPFS) saw a 14% increase in revenue in the third quarter of this year, its latest financial results show. Parent company Hewlett Packard (HP)announced its results for the three months ended 31 July 2010, and its financing arm, under which its leasing activities fall, saw revenue rise to $764m (602 million) from $670m for the same period in 2009
First new growth for German leasing since 2009
New business in German equipment leasing has grown by 3.7 percent in the second quarter of this year This represents the first growth since 2009, the Federal Association of German Leasing Companies (BDL) has said. The increase was supported mainly by vehicle leasing, BDL figures show, including 6.4 percent growth by cost in the non-commercial vehicle segment