The big story on most asset finance banker’s minds is the sale of part of Barclays’ asset finance. Although so far few words have been written about this, partly because the deal excludes the former Iveco business, the business’ trophy finance arm, and also because Barclays has refused to comment on it, the last anyone did hear about it the bank had posted sales memoranda to prospective purchasers and several names had cropped up as interested buyers. That was way back in June, and while most of the City remains tight lipped on the affair, it looks highly likely that the deal remains active.

Far more concrete was the buyout of the leasing businesses of Julian Hodge Bank by a subsidiary of FirstRand, WesBank. The deal included the motor finance business, Carlyle Finance, and the asset finance arm of Julian Hodge. The new owners, FirstRand, have kept the Carlyle trading name, and Mark Standish and Peter Coleman keep their posts as heads of the motor finance and asset finance businesses. Other purchases by FirstRand, both in Britain and on the continent, are on the cards.

Syscap - Few, of course, could have missed recent developments at Syscap. Coinciding with the stepping down of Lord Mitchell as chairman, shares in part of the business have been bought by private equity fund AnaCap Financial Partners, while there has also been a re-shuffle at the top which has left Philip White, former sales director, as the new CEO. Bets are out on as to who will replace Lord Mitchell as chairman.

The Americans too breached British shores with the sale of Hypercom’s leasing business to Northern Leasing Systems, a micro-ticket leasing company based in New York, and Forrester UK Holdings LLC. The $6.8m deal, first highlighted in a Security and Exchange Commission statement, includes point-of-sale equipment, devices, terminals and other general equipment to merchants and other businesses.

Meanwhile Macquarie Bank, a growing predator in leasing globally, has agreed to buy Stagecoach Group’s London operations which owns and leases about 1,300 vehicles and employs some 4,300 staff;  Lex Defence, the asset provider to UK armed forces, was bought out in June by the VT Group, a government service provider; while around the same time Norton Folgate, the Hertfordshire-based small ticket brokerage, rejected an all-share offer of £3.65m from an unnamed acquirer.

Meanwhile across the English Channel the earth is positively shaking for all the deals going on, the most recent being the long awaited decision by Spanish bank BBVA to buy 9,000 vehicles for $67m from Italian fleet provider, Maggiore.

Eastern Europe - Lessors in Eastern Europe are watching bated breath as more and more of their businesses are bought up, not least in June with the arrival in strength of GE in the Romanian market where it bought leasing outfit Motoractive, consumer finance firm Estima Finance and mortgage company Domenia Credit. Around about the same time Poland’s Pekao Group was the subject of anti-monopoly measures following an attempted merger with Bank BPH which would have bolstered its leasing capacity. In nearby Bulgaria the local branch of HVB Leasing and Hebros Leasing merged.

Besides Hebros, there was further evidence of Greek expansion last month with the Greece National Bank announcing plans to launch a tender offer for a minority stake in Finans Leasing on the back of its acquisition of 46 per cent of Finansbank shares.

The German market is going through a rocky period with KG Allgemeine, in and out of the to buy market for many months, having settled upon getting some help to get the job done by hiring investment bank Goldman Sachs. Uncertainty hangs over Hannover Leasing not least as on May 3 German property company, IVHG, sold its 25 per cent stake in the business to Landesbank Hessen-Thuringen, which now owns 75 per cent of Hannover. Meanwhile in Italy Banca Italease continues to dominate an already buoyant market – not least because asset finance companies include property leasing which is in a state of maturing – and, following its purchase of the leasing business of Banca Populare Italiana, Banca Italease owns some 14 per cent of the total Italian leasing market.

Reproduced with the kind permission of Leasing Life

Leasing Life Issue: 156 - September 06
by Brendan Malkin , Editor - LeasingLife
Published for the web: September 6 06 11:9
Last Updated: May 13 09 15:4
www.leasinglife.co.uk