Rothschild’s
ABL business sold to GE
Leasing
Life May 6th 2008
GE Commercial Finance’s Business Finance unit, a leading
independent finance provider to UK SMEs, has acquired
Five Arrows Commercial Finance Ltd - a major, UK-based invoice discounter,
asset-based lender and factoring house. Five Arrows Commercial Finance Ltd was
acquired from NM Rothschild & Sons Ltd for an undisclosed sum.
Five Arrows Commercial Finance Ltd is one of the top ten providers of invoice
discounting, factoring and asset-based lending solutions to small and
mid-market businesses in the UK,
with over 400 clients and more than £175 million of assets under
management.
WRAP
Doubles Lessor Panel For Equipment Leasing Scheme:
22
April 2008
WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme)
has appointed 10 new lessors to its highly successful
eQuip Residual Guarantee scheme. The new lessors join the 10 existing panel members and will help to
guarantee asset finance as the recycling sector continues to grow.
Doubling the opportunity for recycling businesses to source
finance, the eQuip lessor
panel now also includes: Close Asset Finance Ltd, Clydesdale Bank, De Lage Landen Leasing Ltd, Fortis Lease UK Ltd, HSBC Equipment Finance (UK) Limited,
ING Lease (UK) Ltd, JCB Finance Ltd, KBC Lease (UK) Ltd, Triple Point
Investment Management LLP and Vision Asset Finance Ltd.
Ian Wardle, Head of
Business Support at WRAP, says:
“Since its
inception in 2004, eQuip has made a significant
contribution towards meeting UK
recycling targets. To date, 358 assets have been guaranteed through eQuip, at a value in excess of £21 million. These
assets have already diverted three and a half million tonnes
of waste from landfill and the demand for this type of activity is going to
grow rapidly in the next few years. The extended panel of lessors
will help the recycling sector to keep pace with this demand.”
The eQuip scheme was launched in 2004 to stimulate investment
in the recycling sector and is managed by Cranmer
Lawrence & Company Ltd, the specialist asset management and remarketing
company, on WRAP’s behalf. The scheme offers
Residual Value Guarantees on plant and machinery to lessors
able to provide operating leases to recycling businesses. WRAP determines the
eligibility and level of support to be provided to the lessor
based on the type of asset and purpose for which the asset will be used.
Negotiation and agreement of specific lease terms is left to individual
applicants and lessors.
The extended panel
will work with Cranmer Lawrence to further develop
the eQuip scheme. Further details of eQuip can be obtained from the WRAP website: www.wrap.org.uk.
Editor's
notes:
The 10 new lessors join existing panel members Alliance &
Leicester Commercial Finance plc, Bank of Scotland, Barclays Bank plc, GE
Capital Equipment Finance Ltd, HFGL Limited (BNP Paribas), Kaupthing
Singer & Friedlander Commercial Finance Ltd, SG Equipment Finance Ltd,
Siemens Financial Services Ltd, State Securities plc, System
Rental UK Ltd.
WRAP helps individuals,
businesses and local authorities to reduce waste and recycle more, making
better use of resources and helping to tackle climate change
Established as
a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by government funding from England, Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland.
Working in
seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business
Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority
Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market
development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource
efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness
activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.
More
information on all of WRAP's programmes
can be found on www.wrap.org.uk
General Electric shares tumble most since 1987 on profits warning
By James Quinn, Wall Street Correspondent http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Last
Updated: 5:06pm BST 11/04/2008
Industrial
and financial conglomerate General Electric rocked global markets today after
it admitted that the global credit crisis will hit its profits this year.
GE,
which owns everything from GE Finance to US television network NBC, saw
first quarter profits fall by 5.8pc as it warned of weakness across its
businesses. The company, the world’s third largest by market value, also
delivered a disappointing forecast for the year ahead, guiding down estimates
for full-year profits.
The Dow
Jones Industrial Average, of which GE is one of the largest constituents, was
knocked for six, trading down as low as 177 points at one stage. But the impact
was felt beyond the US,
with the FTSE100, which had been a relatively positive morning, turning red,
trading down more than 60 points.
Profits fell across GE’s many and
varied divisions, with commercial finance off 20pc at $1.158bn in the three
months to march, while GE Money, its personal financing arm, down 19pc at
$995m.
The
company has been revamping its financial services business, by reducing its
exposure to consumers, particularly those with poor credit ratings. Mr Immelt said its financial
services arm “proved to be difficult in the last two weeks” of
March, whole admitting he had seen a March slowdown in commercial finance.
He added
that the company plans to “de-risk” GE Finance, and will try to
exit volatile consumer finance areas. But it was not just those businesses with
a direct link to the credit crisis that were impacted.
CIT to use emergency credit lines
By James Quinn, Wall Street
Correspondent http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Last
Updated: 12:32am GMT 21/03/2008
CIT,
America's largest independent commercial finance house, is to draw on $7.3bn
(£3.67bn) of emergency unsecured credit lines in order to keep afloat as
it struggles to raise cash in the open market. The company has a portfolio of
assets worth more than $80bn and is considering selling some of those in an
effort to meet funding requirements.
It is
the latest finance company to be forced to call on emergency funds in order to
continue trading in what appears to be a deepening dislocation in the global
credit markets.
Shares
in CIT, whose portfolio contains $9.2bn of sub-prime mortgages and $11.5bn of
student loans, slumped as low as 44pc, before recovering slightly to trade down
$2.21 at $9.43 in late trading.
Chief
executive Jeff Peek said the decision "was the result of the protracted
disruption in the capital markets as well as recent actions by the rating
agencies".
Earlier
this week, rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's separately cut CIT's long and short-term debt ratings, weighing on the
company's ability to raise money in the short-term commercial paper markets.
Last
month, CIT warned that it raised only $2.7bn of the $6bn-$8bn it estimated it
would need in the first six months of 2008. Under normal circumstances, the
company would not have a problem, given that it is expected to generate $24.7bn
from leases and other assets this year, and needs to repay only $15bn.
CIT,
whose major assets include an aircraft leasing portfolio as well as a
considerable financial services book, may now try to pledge some of its assets
as security in return for secured lending in addition to finding alternative
funding methods.
March 2008 – Bank
of Scotland
withdraw from public sector operating lease market.
NHS PASA has received confirmation that the Bank of Scotland is to withdraw
from the operating lease market. The following statement was received from the
bank on 5 March 2008:
"Following a comprehensive strategic review of our Public Sector
Leasing business, it is with regret that we must advise that we have taken the
decision to exit the public sector operating lease market as of 30th May 2008.
With the exception of existing commitments, no new tenders will be accepted
from today's date. We will, of course, in the interim continue to process any
pending business and maintain the excellent customer service that has
previously been delivered. Our Asset Management Department will continue to
manage all assets under existing agreements through to expiry. We would
therefore be grateful if you could advise all of your contracted authorities
accordingly.
2008.02.25,
Kaupthing announces the final
phase of the restructuring of its UK business
As the final step
in the restructuring of the UK business following Kaupthing's acquisition of
Singer & Friedlander in 2005, Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander announces
that it will be exiting its Asset Finance and Commodity Trade Finance
businesses and that it has made structural changes within its Banking Division.
Following the
restructuring Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander will be purely focused on
providing integrated financial services to small and medium sized businesses
and high net worth individuals through its five core business segments;
Banking, Investment Banking Treasury, Capital Markets and Asset Management
& Private Banking.
Asset Finance
(Corporate Asset Finance, Healthcare Asset Finance and Insurance Premium
Finance) and Commodity Trade Finance are non-core to Kaupthing Singer &
Friedlander and have been operating largely on a standalone basis. Exiting
these businesses will have a positive impact on the cost base and will free up
liquidity in excess of GBP 1 billion (EUR 1,3 billion) in 2008. The capital
released will be reinvested to further grow the core UK business. After the
divestment there is no longer any significant asset finance business within the
Kaupthing group.
In addition
Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander has transferred the Structured Finance
division from Banking into the Acquisition and Leveraged Finance division
within Investment Banking. Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander will also close
its Property and Corporate Banking activities in Leeds and Manchester and move
them to Birmingham and London.
