All articles by Jason T
Jason T
Siemens: 50% firms expect more use of finance
A new survey has shown that nearly 50 percent of European firms expect an increase in their use of alternative financing for acquiring equipment this year, compared to just 18 percent in 2008. Siemens Financial Services new study showed that, at 57 percent, German firms expect the use of alternative financing to increase the most, followed by British firms at 44 percent and French firms at 42.3 percent.
Leaked memos reveal GE Capital is targeting 10% growth in 2010
GE Capital rolls its three EMEA businesses into one, Jason T Hesse reveals.
More opportunities available
According to figures from FIDER, the Turkish leasing association, the number of new contracts signed by leasing companies in Turkey decreased from 51,519 contracts in 2007 to 19,878 in 2008, a fall of over 60 percent. Overall leasing penetration in the country was 7 percent, a slight fall from the previous years 7.7 percent The total value of the equipment being leased also fell to $5.3 billion (4.1 billion), down from $8.2 billion the previous year, a 35 percent decline.
Tough choices for new Lloyds boss
The last four weeks have been mixed for the asset finance arm of Lloyds Banking Group (LBG), the 65 percent government-owned UK banking leviathan formed from the merger of Lloyds TSB and HBOS.
FLA: Business down, arrears up
In addition to seeing arrears grow to 4 percent, UK finance companies saw year-on-year new business fall by an average of 30 percent in February, according to the latest data from the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA). According to the FLA, at the end of February, the percentage of outstanding business finance contracts in arrears contracts down by two payments or more stood at 4 percent, up from 2.6 percent in February 2008.
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Get industry leading news, data and analysis delivered to your inbox
Outsourcing in IT needed to stay ahead of the game
As more and more companies look to offload their IT business into managed service contracts, lessors will need to become more open to working with outsourcers if they do not want to risk losing valuable business. ECS, the technology finance subsidiary of Socit Gnrale, believes that there is currently a gap in the market, and has decided that now is a good time to approach outsourcers and system integrators in the UK. We are in the process of setting up a channel to develop programmes with pan-European outsourcers, explained Chris Labrey, UK sales director at ECS
Digital cinema vendor secures ?100m funding
Digital cinema service vendor XDC has secured 100 million of funding from Fortis Bank, allowing the company to finance more than 2,000 digital screens across Europe. After nearly one year of negotiations with the Belgian bank, the funding, in the form of a senior debt facility, will enable XDC to complete the first phase of the virtual print fee (VPF) based roll-out of its European digital cinema deployment programme.
Hitachi Capital UK breaks cross-border mould
Hitachi Capital UK has launched a cross-border syndication initiative to partner with finance companies Under the initiative, Hitachi Capital will act as introducer for Hitachi Group company business, also offering guarantees on residual values (RVs) on the Hitachi equipment. We need local finance partners in almost every European country, plus other countries like Turkey which are developing very quickly, said Dilek Mackenzie, head of syndication at Hitachi Capital UK.
GE Capital’s metamorphosis
Following the announcement last July 2008 of a major reorganisation at GE Capital, the company has taken steps to consolidate its business lines into a new structure, called GE Capital EMEA. The new business, which incorporates GE Corporate Financial Services (CFS) Europe, GE Capital Solutions Europe, and GE Healthcare Financial Services (HFS) Europe, will be headed by Rich Laxer and headquartered in London.
The rough and the not so smooth
It has been another tough month for UK lessors, and most people in the industry know funding is top of the agenda.