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How the world’s largest fleet lessor works: a profile of LeasePlan
 LeasePlan had a good year in 2012 – on the eve of its 50th anniversary it recorded near-record results. This was very much against the general flow of lessors’ results.
With a global presence in 31 countries, and a recent record of consistent growth, LeasePlan’s international success has been headed for the last seven years by Vahid Daemi, chairman and chief executive.
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Lease accounting draft finally comes out
  The long awaited second exposure draft of the new global lease accounting standard was finally published on May 16. It contains few real surprises, due to the very public deliberation process used by the standard setters through the long gestation period. It nevertheless throws up some key issues that will need to be addressed by the leasing industry during the comment period running for the next four months.
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Asian expansion for Connaught Finance
 Connaught Finance is opening a new marketing office in Colombo, Sri Lanka. After nearly two years of network build up and establishing financial relationships with local banks and finance companies, the company has opened up a branch office in the countries capital.
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Chris Stamper joins Aldermore
 Chris Stamper has joined the Board of Aldermore as a non-executive director.
Stamper has 35 years of experience in the asset finance sector, most recently as director and CEO of ING Lease (UK) Ltd. He spent 11 years at ING Lease and was responsible for over 300 staff and growing pre-tax profits from £10m to over £56m.
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Growing capex investment amongst European SMEs may elude lessors
 GE Capital’s latest European SME Capex Barometer shows an improving appetite for capital expenditure across European SMEs, despite the uncertain European economic environment.
However, some 42% of SMEs prefer to approach their local high street banks for lending facilities rather than established asset finance lenders.
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Nostrum Group’s outsource service goes live at Green Deal Finance
  Nostrum Group has announced that its full outsource service to support the acquisition and subsequent management of Green Deal Plans on behalf of The Green Deal Finance Company has become fully operational. As part of the long-term agreement, Nostrum Group will provide its technology and associated processing services to support the whole loan lifecycle, from application processing through to loan servicing.
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ConnectionPoint 2013 Conference Date Announced
 International Decision Systems (IDS) have announced the date for their annual conference – Connection Point.
It’s October 9-11, 2013 and will take place at the Windows on Minnesota Conference Center in downtown Minneapolis.
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Cautious Optimism in Canada as Economic Growth Slows
 The Canadian economy shows some signs of faltering, but White Clarke Group’s Jonathan Dodds still sees good potential for equipment financing.
When the world financial system collapsed in 2007, Canada recovered faster from recession than any of the other members of the G7. Its banks remained solid owing to conservative lending practices and strong capitalization. Low interest rates encouraged consumer borrowing and spending.
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Ritchie Bros' first Chinese auction likely to boost Beijing leasing
 Ritchie Bros’ first ever unreserved public auction in Beijing, China is predicted to give the Chinese yellow goods leasing sector a boost. The Canadian company held its first ever unreserved public auction in China last month.
More than 1,000 attendees arrived on auction day to experience the fair, transparent and global platform for exchanging equipment at the Company's new auction site in the Beijing Tianzhu Free Trade Zone.
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Call for greater innovation as chief executives ponder the future of leasing
 Since the introduction of leasing into Europe in the late 1960’s, the leasing industry has had a long and proud tradition of innovation.
However, the industry needs to draw upon this spirit of innovation right now because there are some very serious concerns about the future of leasing in the post-recession environment.
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Rating agency head attacks lease accounting proposals
The second exposure draft of the new proposed global lease accounting standard is due to be issued this month. Its most controversial proposals are already attracting widespread criticism.
A representative at Moody's, has come out against the proposal to require full balance sheet capitalization by all lessees, and in particular the more recently agreed basis for annual profit and loss account expensing.
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Captives Forum discusses markets’ readiness for SEPA
 The Captives Forum − the trade association of Manufacturers’ Finance Companies, held its first quarterly meeting earlier this year, at which members spent time reviewing some of the finer details of SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) as eurozone businesses finalise their readiness for going live by 1 February 2014.
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Industry forum set to explore manufacturer finance initiatives
  One of the changes to have affected the global asset finance and leasing industry has been the growing importance of manufacturer and vendor finance. In this increasingly competitive landscape Invigors, part of the Alta Group, has invited four eminent speakers to an industry briefing in London on June 13, 2013.
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UK bank funding support: non-bank lessors to be included
 On April 24 the UK authorities announced a significant extension of their Funding for Lending (FFL) economic stimulus scheme to encourage banks to expand their lending.
The original FFL scheme already includes the asset finance business of banking groups. However, the latest announcement appears to extend the coverage of FFL to include banks’ lending to non-bank lessors. The scheme is also being extended for a further year.
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New chairman of FASB appointed from this July
 Russell G. Golden has been appointed as the next chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB). The appointment was made by the Board of Trustees of the Financial Accounting Foundation, which oversees the FASB. Golden will succeed current FASB chairman Leslie F. Seidman, whose term ends on June 30.
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Lex Autolease appoints new broker boss
 Fiona Hall has been named as Lex Autolease’s new director of Broker and Branded Solutions.
She will head up a 60-strong team, responsible for handling the company’s relationship with the broker community and its white-label service offering to vehicle manufacturers, including Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Mitsubishi and Volvo.
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CIT posts Q1 profit with reduced debt charges
 CIT Group has reported net income of $163 million in Q1 2013, compared to a net loss of $427 million for the first quarter of 2012.
The loss in the year-ago quarter was primarily due to $620m of debt redemption charges, compared to $18m of debt redemption charges in the current quarter.
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Challenge Consulting wins major industry award for work with Hitachi Capital UK
 Hitachi Capital UK (HCUK) and Challenge Consulting have won the Management Consultancies Association award for Change Management in the Private Sector.
This prestigious award was in recognition of Challenge Consulting’s work with HCUK in defining, launching and delivering Hitachi Capital’s Connect Programme. The programme was a key contributor to HCUK doubling its profits within a year and enabled the lender to become the engine room to Hitachi Capital’s global business.
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Peter Cooke reflects upon the passing of a British Prime Minister
 History will probably record Mrs Thatcher was one of the most influential and reforming prime ministers of the 20th century. I met the lady a number of times over the years and would agree with President Mitterand that: “she has the eyes of Caligula and the lips of Marilyn Monroe”.
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Ebbon-Dacs unveils second generation of Leaselink platform
 Online solutions provider Ebbon-Dacs has announced it is developing a second generation of Leaselink in conjunction with its user-groups.
The Leaselink e-procurement platform is currently used by 12 of the top 15 major leasing companies in the UK, which use it to source, order and track deliveries of over 100,000 new fleet vehicles a year from a buying community of leading motor manufactures and 1,500 franchised dealers.
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Fall in US lessors’ confidence reported this month
 The Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation’s April 2013 Monthly Confidence Index has revealed a fall in confidence in the equipment finance market. Ron Arrington, president of CIT Global Vendor Finance said: “The effects of sequestration, tax increases and healthcare costs are causing companies to continue to hold back on investment in capex."
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French equipment finance sector slows down in 2012
 The French leasing sector has shown a significant fall in activity in the final quarter of 2012.
Frédéric Laurent, CHP Consulting’s operations director (France) told Asset Finance International: “While one would have hoped for the upturn in activity observed in Q3 2012 to carry on into Q4, it was not to be. 2012 will consequently be remembered by the industry as a year of ups and downs. The end result is a slight contraction (-0.3%) for the whole of 2012.”
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Board changes at Captives Forum as it plans for growth
 The Captives Forum has announced changes at Board level. The changes come at a crucial time for the European leasing industry as the manufacturers’ captive sector is widely predicted to be on the verge of rapid growth owing to the continuing reluctance of banks to expand their lending portfolios in response to industry needs.
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CHP Consulting recruits Global Head of Automotive Finance
 Robert Johnson has been appointed Global Head of Automotive Finance at CHP Consulting.
He previously held senior positions at leading US-based financial services software providers and also at BearingPoint and, most recently, was a senior manager at one of the “Big Four” global professional services organizations.
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Lease Accounting: now hesitation among divided US standard setters
 The revised exposure draft of the new global lease accounting standard looks likely to be released during May.
It will carry the joint endorsement of the standard setting bodies – the IASB and the FASB. However, FASB's commitment is looking more shaky following a further meeting of that Board this month.
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European lessors see profitability rise in 2012
 The Leaseurope Segment Survey is a supplement to the Leaseurope Index and tracks the key performance indicators of some 17 European lessors on a quarterly basis across four asset types: equipment; real estate; passenger cars and commercial vehicles.
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Lease accounting changes: Some lessees could get more time
The long promised second exposure draft of the new lease accounting standard is likely to be released in the coming weeks. The broad scope of the changes has been clear for some months now, from the public re-deliberations of the joint standard setting bodies, following the original exposure draft issued in 2010.
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US auto finance and leasing trends and prospects for 2013
 At the turn of the year, I wrote that the global auto market looked set for a year of subdued growth outside of hotspots such as China and India, but in the US the sector would certainly see a continued rise in sales.
Since then, the US auto market has indeed continued to perform well, aided by modest economic recovery and greater availability of credit.
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UK Asset Finance: outlook remains positive despite continued decline in new business volumes
 New figures from the UKs Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show a 14% reduction in total asset finance provided by members in February 2013 and a 2% reduction in leasing and hire purchase.
Despite this, the FLA report that the outlook remains positive with results from their Q1 2013 Asset Finance Confidence Survey suggesting that total new business volumes may rise by up to 10% in 2013.
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Stephanie Strickland joins the Leasing Foundation
 Stephanie Strickland has joined the Leasing Foundation as an associate adviser for the Foundation's diversity activity Women in Leasing.
Peter Thomas, one of the Foundation's Directors told Asset Finance International "We are excited that Stephanie is able to join us to work on Women in Leasing. It's important in this and many other industries, that women are provided the right challenges and that we work to create inclusive workplaces."
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New leasing industry qualification due for launch in May
 The Finance & Leasing Association and ifs School of Finance’s professional certificate qualification is scheduled to commence next month (May).
It is a ground-breaking move in so far as it returns a professional qualification to the UK asset finance and leasing industry since the Finance Houses Diploma was discontinued several years ago.
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CMS appoints new aviation finance specialist
 International law firm CMS has appointed a new asset finance partner in London, Tim Elliott to further strengthen its International Finance team.
Elliott joins from Allen & Overy and specialises in structured and asset finance advising on debt and leasing transactions across the various asset classes and products.
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CBC Recruitment re-brands as its service levels broaden
 CBC Recruitment Solutions has been re-branded as CBC Resourcing Solutions (CBC).
CBC’s director Graeme Chisholm explained: “Over recent years the CBC proposition has broadened significantly and is so much more than just recruitment. Whilst specialist search and selection remains our core activity, the service offering now includes recruitment process outsourcing, industry specific career counselling and outplacement, recruitment campaign management and consultancy.”
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US government dithering blamed for equipment leasing downturn
 The US Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s, reports that overall new business volume for February was $4.7bn, down 6% from volume of $5bn in February 2012.
Month-over-month, new business was down 20% from January. Year to date, cumulative new business volume was up 5% compared to 2012.
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A tireless champion for UK brokers - Profile of Adam Tyler of the NACFB
 In 2012 the UK National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers celebrated its 20th anniversary. There is also a new “spring in the step” of asset finance brokers. The origin of this air of optimism can to a significant degree, be traced back to the association’s tireless chief executive, Adam Tyler. Tyler’s single-minded approach to the future prosperity of the UK intermediary sector has been determined and ceaseless during his seven-year incumbency.
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 The UK Budget: effects on the equipment leasing industry
Today’s UK Budget statement brings a number of changes that will affect equipment leasing, through the tax treatment of lessees and – in the case of the banking sector – lessors and their parent companies.
The overall economic context is a difficult one, where a stagnant or very slow growing UK economy has depressed tax receipts and brought delays to the government’s plans for reducing the huge budget deficit that opened up with the sharp recession following the “credit crunch” in 2007-8.
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Middle-sized companies lead UK new business funding quest, reports Bibby
 Business growth in the UK in Q4 2012 has been driven by small and medium-sized enterprises which are seeing above average levels of new orders, customers and optimism, according to Bibby Financial Services.
Dave Golding, UK sales director corporate at Bibby explained that firms with a turnover between £5m and £20m are outstripping performance of much smaller companies as well as larger businesses.
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Optimism revealed in US and UK marine finance sectors
 The marine industry and its marine finance partner have long been regarded bellwethers of the general economic climate.
So it is significant that more than half of marine industry survey participants in the US said the best time to increase inventory levels is right now, according to results released by GE Capital, Commercial Distribution Finance.
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De Lage Landen, boosted by strong vendor finance, adds value in 2012
 De Lage Landen grew its managed portfolio by 5% to €30.8bn ($40.6bn) in 2012. Net income reached €1.5bn ($1.9bn).
In 2012 DLL’s Vendor Finance division grew 7% due to a strong performance across all business channels, especially the Food & Agriculture market and the sector for Construction, Transportation and Industrial equipment.
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New asset finance sales director appointed at Aldermore
 Keith Sangwin has been appointed director of sales of Aldermore’s Asset Finance business.
Reporting to George Ashworth, managing director of Asset Finance, Sangwin brings over 30 years’ experience of the asset finance industry to his new role, having worked at both Barclays Asset Finance and BNP Paribas.
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Why India is a natural fit for a strong leasing industry
 The Indian leasing sector is still at the development stage in a market where bank financing is traditionally dominant. There are a number of reasons why the recent growth in leasing looks set to continue, and to provide opportunities for both domestic and foreign lessors, despite the obstacles presented by its taxation and regulatory regimes, in particular.
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New Head of Risk appointed at D&D Leasing
 Athol Abrahams has joined D&D Leasing as Head of Risk and Operations.
Formerly, Abrahams was Head of Litigation and Fraud at ING Lease, and Head of Operations at Singer and Friedlander.
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How a modern UK asset finance brokerage operates
 John Mulheron, managing director of Corporate & Marine Finance, believes that although the asset finance sector has gone through a tumultuous period over recent years, it is better placed than ever to redefine itself and grow as a strong and reliable alternative to the banks.
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Lender bursts the myth of UK’s manufacturing decline – with caveats for the future
 Pervasive accounts regarding UK manufacturing habitually paint a gloomy picture of gradual decline. They tell the story of a once-mighty industrial heritage in full and inevitable retreat in face of the might of the emerging economies of Asia and South America. It is a beguiling tale, but with a fatal flaw. For it is not true.
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Leasing Foundation sets date for first annual conference
 The Leasing Foundation has announced the date for its first Annual Conference which will be held on 30 September 2013.
The conference will be hosted by RBS at their offices in Bishopsgate, London and will be opened by Chris Sullivan, Chief Executive of the RBS Corporate Banking Division.
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UK Manufacturers look on the bright side – but set a challenge to the government
 Manufacturing exports to the UK’s top 10 emerging markets were up 12% in 2012. Employment across the manufacturing sector rise by 60,000. Also, the UK is heading for a trade surplus in the automotive sector for the first time in 40 years.
All this was part of the general level of optimism displayed at the EEF National Manufacturing Conference.
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Reluctance for lessees to invest reflects in latest Leaseurope Index figures
 In the latest Leaseurope Index for Q4 2012, the weighted average ratios improved slightly compared to the same quarter of the previous year, but deteriorated compared to Q3 2012.
On an annual basis, all ratios worsened in 2012 compared to 2011, largely as a result of strong performance in the first half of 2011.
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New government-regulation advocate appointed for US leasing industry
 Megan Kueck has joined the US Equipment Leasing and Finance Association as director of State Government Relations.
Kueck will monitor, analyze and advocate on state legislation affecting the $725bn equipment finance industry, working closely with vice president of State Government Relations Dennis Brown.
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New MD for De Lage Landen’s Americas region
 Carlo van Kemenade is to join the executive board of De Lage Landen and has also been appointed managing director for the company’s Americas Region.
Van Kemenade will be responsible for the overall operations and commercial activities of De Lage Landen in North and Latin America.
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New appointment at BNP Paribas Leasing - as news breaks of yellow goods finance deal
 Fabienne Daulne has been appointed to manage the Bank Leasing Services International Business Line (IBL BLS) of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions.
She comes with an in-depth knowledge of corporate clients' priorities, and shall take over management of IBL BLS and shall also become part of BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions' Steering Committee.
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Plant & machinery equipment uplift boosts optimism in UK and US
 New figures from the UK Finance & Leasing Association show that despite a fall in new business during December, asset finance deals of up to £20 million grew by 5% in 2012, taking the total to £20.6 billion.
During 2012 it was the plant and machinery, IT equipment and used car finance sectors that reported double-digit growth of 12%, 17% and 30% respectively.
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Getting back on track: Leasing Foundation announces the focus for its first research project
The new Leasing Foundation is planning research that will question the very core of the asset finance/leasing industry itself. "The very essence of leasing," one Fellow has said, "which is a broad church of specialisms and products, has led to a mixed perception of the industry in the marketplace."
Asset Finance International has taken the opportunity to ask the Foundation’s Fellows for their opinions on how the leasing industry is currently perceived, and to comment on how the three tenets of the Leasing Foundation, (philanthropy, research, development & training) may be applied to help rehabilitate the industry's image amongst investors, regulators, customers and other stakeholders.
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Most popular articles this week
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Mercedes-Benz Financial Services (MBFS) has revealed that it is to partner with Leasedrive for its fleet finance operations.
When Elliot Lennick assumed the newly-created role of vice president and head of international sales at MAN Finance International in 2011 – at the height of the Great Recession – to some it may have seemed a poisoned chalice.
ZRG Partners’ Global Equipment Leasing and Asset Finance Hiring Index has recorded a slight decrease in overall hiring demand in the international leasing and asset finance sectors in Q1 2013 - ending the quarter at 54.5, down 3.4% in the quarter.
As the global quest to bring finance to manufacturers' goods gathers pace, GE Capital’s Equipment Finance business is establishing a business development group, led by 28-year GE Capital veteran Jim Kelly.
The Asset Works, the specialist in leased asset management and verification services and Jones Lang LaSalle have launched Asset Inception Check new service designed to help lessors to validate and confirm accurate pricing for assets that they lease.
The Department of Business Innovation & Skills Small Business Survey 2012 polled 5,723 SME employers between June and September 2012.
Aviation financing is a hot topic and likely to remain so over the coming years, as the demand for financing deliveries of new aircraft peaks at a time when long term financing becomes unattractive for some of the incumbent banks.
Would you accuse me of overdramatizing the situation if I claimed the economic collapse of Cyprus was as much about protecting German exports as the euro?
Sword Apak has announced that it has gone live with its wholesale floorplanning system with a new client in North America.
Dara Clarke, CEO of White Clarke Group, was recently interviewed by Professor Colin Tourick at the Buckingham Automotive Forum.
UK invoice finance enjoyed a huge surge in sales in Q4 2012, growing nearly 13% compared to Q3 2012.
A 50% capital gains tax band on shares and increased state spending on research are two of the recommendations revealed in a report on business short-termism commissioned by the UK Labour party.
