All articles by Richard Irvine-Brown
Richard Irvine-Brown
BMW FS global revenues up, profit down
Second-quarter results from the BMW Group have shown revenue and contract volume growth for BMW Financial Services (BMW FS) while profits, before tax and before interest and tax, dropped. BMW FS revenues for the quarter totalled 4,866m (£3,834m), 16.36% up on Q2 2011 and 1.4% up on the 2012 first-quarter
VWFS profit up 20%, H1 2012
Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS), captive finance partner to the Volkswagen Group, has reported a 20% rise in operating profit, year-on-year, for the first half of 2012. Following a buoyant 2011, operating profit stood at 665m (£519m), January June 2012, up by 111m, which VWFS credited to business volume and currency-related factors. Both Scania and MAN, the two specialist commercial vehicle brands under the VW umbrella, however, saw a decline in business compared to the first half of 2011
Fleet Friday: Brands’ vans, costs and guidance
A roundup of the weeks fleet news from the UK and Europe including a new deal for Toyota and Peugeot-Citron, the relative success of VW finance, GE Capitals findings on fleet costs and the best way to navigate them from the BVRLA
Credo shoots first to halt lost fleet business
Regional finance broker Credo Asset Finance has launched a UK-wide service for car dealerships to secure finance for fleet in a bid to stop an estimated £25,000 in lost business annually. The Agreed Finance package is based on the estimation by Credo that the average UK dealership is haemorrhaging £25,000 a year on fleet finance deals which are falling through. To avert vanishing deals and commission, Credo has promised its new service will provide an initial credit decision within 30 minutes, an outcome for 75% of proposals within two hours and finance rates starting at 3% flat.
Shoosmiths joins CSA as affiliate member
Shoosmiths has become one of the first law firms accepted as an affiliate member of the Credit Services Association (CSA). Shoosmihs Recoveries Services Group operates collections for both lenders and business-to-business, in both the UK and Europe, covering banks, building societies, motor manufacturer captives and independent asset and motor finance companies.
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Fleet Friday – fuel tax, remarketing and Citroën
The week’s fleet news from around the UK. The UK government announced this week it is to delay a proposed 3p rise in fuel duty until January 2013.
Changes as Grant Thornton eyes European growth
Christian Roelofs has been promoted to director at global consultancy Grant Thornton as part of the firms ambition to grow its leasing and consumer finance work in which Roelofs has been an associate director since August 2011 in the UK and Europe Previously, Gerrard had been interim chief executive and project director at Grant Thornton helping the restructure of a Central European bank-owned asset-leasing group following work with the Royal Bank of Scotland, Lombard Vehicle Management and Lex Vehicle Leasing among others.
ILO advises Belgian aircraft lease law outmoded
Freight air carrier leasing in Belgium is out of step with EU regulations for aircraft operating or wet leases due a lack of amendment to Belgian aviation law since European changes in 2008, according to an online global corporate counsel website. Assessing the situation for International Law Office, Pierre D Frhling of Holman Fenwick Willan LLP in Brussels said the broad scope of interpretation for aircraft wet-leases available in the EU Licensing of Air Carriers Regulation of 1992 had been lessened by a series of amendments in 2008 but that Belgian Civil Aviation Authority (BCAA) leasing codes of 1996 had not been updated to reflect those amendments.
Ship leasing sinks Zim further into red
Nir Gilad, CEO of the Israel Corporation, is to ask the Israeli Finance Ministry to break up subsidiary Zim Integrated Shipping Services, following further quarterly losses. Over the first quarter of 2012 the Corporation recorded a loss of $82m (65m), an increase from $57m in the same period 2011, dragged down by the unprofitable Zim operation, which Gilad may hope to sell or merge. $163m was lost by Zim in Q1 2012, an increase from $111m lost in Q1 2011, with the costs of fuel and vessel-leasing taking much of the blame
Fleet Friday: Makers, renters and lessors
Volkswagen (VW) has begun a dealership programme to target fleet opportunities among the estimated one million small and medium enterprises (SMEs) running company vehicles in the UK, similar to recent ambitions announced by Mercedes Benz and Kwik-Fit Fleet.