GE Capital UK to double
balance sheet by 2013. Antonio Fabrizio reports.
Go deeper with GlobalData
GE Capital UK has
reshuffled its equipment finance team as it refocuses its
activities around health care, aircraft and structured equipment
finance.
Jon Maycock, recently appointed as
commercial director for GE Capital UK’s equipment finance division,
will be working alongside a team made of seven people, six of whom
are GE Capital veterans.
The vendor finance team is now led
by Ann Williams, who has been with GE for 17 years. She replaces
Simon Trudgeon, who becomes leader for structured equipment
finance.
Jeremy Knight is the new head for
health care finance, financing both GE and non-GE equipment in the
public and private sectors; and Simon Hines becomes corporate
aircraft leader.
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By GlobalDataJames Ryan is now product and
market leader, and Richard Charlesworth is capital markets leader
in charge of developing GE’s syndicated business.
Mark Turrell is the only external
appointment. He joins from Lombard and is in charge of business
development, looking to expand vendor partnerships and existing and
new markets.
The changes follow plans to
strengthen GE Capital UK’s areas of competence in equipment
finance.
Maycock said: “We want to make sure
in our continually changing environment, we keep up with the
changes in the market and in the customers we have, adapting
ourselves to their new needs. We have the capacity to lend from a
capital perspective and to take on new customers and vendors,
leveraging the expertise we have gained by asset type and
channel.”
The lender will
continue to finance GE products, and the decision to reshuffle the
UK team to focus on health care and aircraft reflects this, as GE
manufactures aircraft components and medical equipment. However,
the majority of business is expected to be for non-GE equipment,
including IT and office equipment, materials handling and other
industrial assets.
Vendor finance accounts for half of
GE Capital UK’s business, and the company expects to sign new
partnerships.
“We have signed, on average, a new
vendor finance partnership every week in 2011,” Maycock said.
The lessor has learned over the
years to provide “scalable processes” for vendors’ growth plans, as
well as automated e-tools which enable 95% of lending decisions to
be made within minutes following a request from a prospective
customer.
GE Capital recently secured a
partnership with telecom systems supplier 4com for the UK, and
another one in the photovoltaic space as it builds its green
finance centre of excellence.
While the renewable finance
business is still a work in progress, once fully developed it will
be used to support products from GE Energy as well as other
manufacturers.
Maycock said: “The requirements for
renewables are critical. These industries will be capex intensive
and asset finance will become more important.”
A third pan-European partnership is
to be announced soon, financing Oracle software installations.
The UK lender increased equipment
finance business by 35% during 2010. It strongly reduced losses in
its portfolio and is now well-positioned for future growth.
The company aims to achieve organic
growth, but will also be looking for acquisitions. In particular,
it will consider portfolio acquisitions in its core spaces, where
there is either a chance of future volumes or existing partner
relationships that can be strengthened.
The lender claimed to be committed
to SMEs and mid-corporates, having provided financing solutions
including invoice discounting and asset finance to 350,000
companies across Europe last year.
Lending to European SMEs was said
to top €200m a day, while its global lending pot was pegged at
$65bn (€46bn), with $15bn earmarked for the EMEA region.
The UK division plans to double its
ebalance sheet to £2bn (€2.3bn) over two years. It expects a mass
replacement cycle to benefit the UK leasing industry once the
market recovers, although Maycock predicted that capex investments
will only grow from 2012.
GE Capital UK aims to grow public sector activity, with the NHS
accounting for more than half of its public sector book, and
technology equipment for local authorities the other half.
