Fred Crawley reports that corporate finance and exotic
assets are at the top of Norton Folgate’s agenda
With the dust from its second quarter relaunch having barely had
time to settle, SME brokerage Norton Folgate (NF) is working on a
blueprint for market expansion that will drastically alter the
scope of the business.
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NF’s original owner, Robert Keep, bought his
old company back from General Capital in March of this year, and is
now planning growth through entry into the marine and aviation
markets, corporate finance provision, and the development of a
lease portfolio through a joint venture.
Despite these ambitions, NF’s role as an asset
finance introducer to the SME market will be maintained, and grown
organically. In this regard, the company has recently made several
hires through its training programme, and is expecting more over
the next six months.
In addition, says Keep, the firm would not be
averse to absorbing one- or two-man brokerages into its sales force
as permanent staff.
To complement the upscaling of the sales
operation, NF is in talks with several potential joint venture
partners, with the aim of taking on the role of a principal
lessor.
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By GlobalDataAs such, NF would manage a receivables
portfolio of its own, with funding supplied by the JV investor.
A key figure in the search for a potential
partner has been Neil Tofts, a corporate finance specialist with a
history in hedge fund management.
Aside from this, however, Keep intends to take
NF’s reputation as an introducer into the luxury yacht and private
light aircraft market, aiming at assets at between £250,000
(€273,363) and £20 million in value.
He commented: “This sector has always been of
interest, as transactions tend to be of high net worth, but deals
there have always been difficult to transact.
“However, through our lending panel we have
been able to present an attractive proposition to all parties, and
through due diligence we are now seeing the successes that we
thought would be forthcoming.”
Marine and aviation deals will be done purely
as an introducer – despite the low level of competition on the
marine market at present, Keep says that his firm could still not
compete with a major bank-owned financier on price terms.
Interestingly, NF intends to expand its work
beyond the bounds of asset finance altogether. In Keep’s opinion,
even if the market recovers relatively quickly from its recent
liquidity drought, companies will remain cash hungry for quite some
time, creating a demand that asset finance alone will not
quench.
As such, he has recently earned a
qualification in corporate finance from the Securities and
Investment Institute and – subject to FSA approval – intends to
begin trading under the brand Norton Folgate Corporate Finance.
Even without these new ventures, NF is now
ranked among the UK’s top 10 brokers in terms of business volume.
With its own lease book and a wider range of products at its
disposal, it seems that NF could have the potential to become a
significant industry landmark.
