All articles by Fred Crawley
Fred Crawley
UniTrust to lead Chinese market by 2011
UniTrust Finance and Leasing Corporation has claimed that it will emerge as the clear leader of the Chinese leasing market in 2010, after a year of growth backed by private equity group TPG Capital. Siming Li, UniTrusts CEO and the former managing director of CITs Asia Pacific unit, said that he was expecting triple-figure growth for the business this year, and stated that staffing had doubled in the last six months
Lombard provides 40 percent of £4m cold storage deal for RBS
RBS asset finance subsidiary Lombard has signed a £1.6 million deal with storage and distribution company Grocontinental, as part of which it will finance the interior fittings of a specialist cold storage chamber and lease out a fleet of 20 commercial vehicles. Whitchurch-based Grocontinental received the finance along with a £2.5 million loan package from NatWest, providing another example of RBS Groups highly integrated asset finance and bank lending strategy.
Europe’s factoring turnover stable in 2009
Factoring and invoice finance providers across the EU achieved a turnover of some 827 billion in 2009, representing a decrease of only 1.9 percent on 2008s total, according to European factoring association EUF. This drop occurs in the context of a 4 percent drop in the EUs GDP, and a 3.14 percent drop in the worldwide factoring market, of which Europe comprises almost 70 percent. The UK led the way, achieving a factoring turnover of nearly 194 billion over the year, up 2.2 percent year-on-year and equivalent to more than 10 percent of UK GDP.
EBRD kick-starts Albanian leasing
The European Bank of Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has provided a 1 million loan to Albanian leasing company Landeslease, in order to kick start SME lending in the countrys fledgling leasing sector
Hypo considering CEE sell-off, Bulgaria first
Recently nationalised banking network Hypo Group Alpe Adria (HGAA) is understood to be looking to sell up to five of its CEE leasing subsidiaries, as it aims to cut its balance sheet in line with an EU restructuring mandate The spotlight is on Hypos leasing subsidiaries in Bulgaria, Hungary, Macedonia, Germany and Ukraine territories where the Austrian group has no banking infrastructure. Bulgaria and Macedonia seem most likely to be sold, with HGAA commenting to CEE newswire SeeNews last week: “Should the final decision require that Hypo Group Alpe Adria has to sell its subsidiaries in Macedonia and Bulgaria, this will in any case be an orderly process of identifying a suitable new owner, and it will not be a close down.”
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Fresh departures at Key
Senior credit analyst Phil Bennett and Ian Millington, credit manager for the UK and Ireland, are known to have resigned from the business, with Bennett moving to a role within SG Equipment Finance and Millington moving to a national finance manager role at auctions and valuation company Edward Symmons.
GE funds seafood MBO
GE Capital has provided Redditch-based Visual Foods Holdings Ltd with a £4.75m working capital facility, comprising a £3.5 million invoice discounting facility, and a £1.25 million inventory finance facility. The injection allowed Visuals management team to buy out the business, including subsidiaries Visual Foods Ltd and Dragon Delight Foodservice Ltd, from parent group British Seafood, which entered administration in February.
LPM MD completes 100km charity cycle
LPM Outsourcing managing director Philip Davies has completed South Africas Cape Argus cycle tour, in an effort to raise money for young peoples charity CHASE. Argus, the worlds largest timed cycling race, takes in some 110km of hilly terrain around Cape Town, and was described as the cycling equivalent of the London Marathon by Davies
Going for gold
As a March sales total of £273 million smashes pre-recession sales records at Volkswagen Financial Services, only a serious dip in consumer confidence seems capable of stopping its ascendancy to the top of the UK point-of-sale market The last time Motor Finance spoke to Graham Wheeler, managing director of Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS), it was on a warm September day just a week after the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
Leasing Life hits double century
As Leasing Life celebrates this month with the publication of its 200th issue, Fred Crawley provides a guided tour of the way things were at issue one, back in 1993, and how things have changed. This months transaction chronicle suggests there really is still life in the leasing industry Leasing Life has been launched to reflect that life and to be a forum for European leasings interests, hopes and concerns