All articles by Fred Crawley
Fred Crawley
GE fleet survey: UK economy set for upturn
According to a recent survey conducted by GE Capital, 57 percent of UK vehicle fleet managers believe that the UK economy will improve slightly by the start of 2011. Some 45 percent of car fleet managers expected to maintain the size of their fleets over the next year, with this figure rising to 71 percent among LCV fleet managers.
New investor acquires Total Asset Finance
Warrington-based Total Asset Finance (TAF) has been acquired by a brand new investment group, in the first step of an acquisition trail aimed at the asset finance sector. The purchasing company, Daresbury Services Group (DSG), was recently founded by Stephen Dartnell TAFs managing director and Stephen Casey, the finance director of healthcare sector software provider IMS Maxims.
Exclusive: Aldermore buys Heritable book
New UK bank Aldermore has effectively doubled the size of its asset finance portfolio by acquiring the lease book of Heritable Asset Finance (HAF).
Yorkshire Bank signs string of mid-ticket deals
The asset finance arm of Yorkshire Bank (YB) has been signing some upper middle ticket deals recently, emerging as a strong player within its distribution range. YBs Manchester office recently signed an agreement to provide £1 million (1.1 billion) of asset finance towards the purchase of a 500-tonne sand washing machine, for excavation and demolition firm Grundy & Co.
Channon steps down from 1pm after £220k interim loss
Rod Channon, financial director of small ticket lessor 1pm, has stepped down from his position at the company in the wake of considerable interim losses. In September 2009, 1pm reported an unusually high number of lease terminations, resulting in bad debt write-offs of £95,000 (105,000) for the month. Results posted for the six months leading to 30 November 2009 have revealed losses of more than £220,000 for the broker-fed funder
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Romanian lessors to face bankruptcy if decline continues
Romania could experience widespread leasing business failure if market contraction continues into 2010, the countrys leasing association (ALB) has warned.
De Lage Landen – ?112 million profit for 2009
Vendor Finance specialist De Lage Landen (DLL) has posted a net profit of 112 million for 2009, some 52 percent down on 2008s total of 235 million. The profit decrease came on the back of portfolio growth, however, with 2009 seeing DLLs lease book grow by 400 million to reach 23.7 billion.
Lex Autolease signs 1500-vehicle, £35 million deal
Lex Autolease, the UKs largest fleet provider, is to supply chilled foods giant Dairy Crest with 1,000 commercial vehicles and 500 cars, in a deal worth £35 million The three year sole supply arrangement will see Dairy Crests milk delivery fleet augmented with a mixture of Ford and Mercedes CVs, on maintenance-inclusive contract hire agreements
Container lessor TAL sees income stream recover
Intermodal freight container lessor TAL International Group has reported an adjusted pre-tax income of 8.8 million for Q4 2009, less than half of the groups Q4 2008 income of 18.3 million, but still up on the previous quarter Sondey, CEO of TAL International Group, said “After falling steadily from the fourth quarter of 2008 through the third quarter of 2009, our pretax income increased slightly in the fourth quarter of 2009, and our major operating metrics started to improve as well.”
ING Lease to focus on UK broker model in Germany
ING Lease Holding has big plans to support its parent group, including the prospect of expanding its German business along the lines of ING Lease UKs broker-fed model.