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February 01, 2001 Headlines---- Steve Geller Says "Goodbye" as Orix Closes Rediscount Center AOL/Time Warner Post $1 Billion Net Loss--and Stocks Go Up!!!! Would You Believe----Leasing Priest????? Fred Schiavo??? Jane Hackworth On the Job Market--You Should Grab Her Quickly! U.S. Auto Sales Dip in January Wells Fargo Completes Conseco Purchase ( Leasing News announced in December ) TechSmart Raises $15 Million in Second-round Financing The List is Up-dated ( taking Friday off, see you next week. Kit Menkin ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Orix---Steve Geller Confirms the News with His Departure Kit: Apparently you hit the name right on the head. Orix has closed down the Rediscount Division, which had been in operation successfully as a separate unit/branch since 1981 and is no longer accepting paper from third party lessors or brokers. Joan and P.K. remain at the company as credit managers in the direct operation. Charlie, Marlee and Lauri (all familiar names to the broker community) are involved in collections. I am considering starting a consulting business to help out any broker, lessor or funder who may need assistance in structuring deals, working out problem accounts or any other lease related matter. I can be reached at 845-354-1270 or by e-mail at geller44@optonline.net. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "Still Alive and Kicking" subject says in her e-mail Kit: I wanted to contact you and get back on your newsletter distribution list at my home e.mail address. I am eager to keep in contact with my fellow leasing cohorts despite the unfortunate news of Advanta Leasing Corp's closing. During my seven years at Advanta I met and worked with so many great people both inside the company and throughout the industry. You, Kit, and many others in the industry were a source of inspiration, excrement,and stimulating humor that I truly adored. Thanks for your kind words of encouragement and the book you sent me. It was important for me to stick with Advanta and see it through. Advanta had always challenged me and encouraged me to succeed, and that is something I am grateful for and I will take with me wherever I go. Thanks to Advanta's generosity (and legal obligations) I am taking some time to relax and plan my wedding. I got engaged last Fall and am getting married this May in England. After that I am eager to find new work and new challenges to overcome. I look forward to keeping in touch with you. Give everyone my best! Jane. jhackforth@aol.com) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A Leasing Priest????? Kit; Fred F. Schiavo of Leasing Is US, Inc. in Rohnert Park, California was in a Volkswagen Commercial during the Superbowl. During the third quarter he appeared in a wedding scene playing the part of a priest. We are told that this same Commercial will be shown on all three Major Networks in the US and all Major networks in Canada including the Internet. This isn't leasing news but it is News. For anyone interested in contacting me I can be reached on the Internet at fanfred80@hotmail.com. Ciao ! ( Or if you want to view the video and see Fred, go to: http://63.210.62.157/qt/content/vw-wedding-day.html it is streaming video/sound and your browser will direct you where to get a free plug in, if you don't have one. editor )
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joint EAEL/NAELB Feb 5th Event---Worth Your Time to Attend------ Kit: Could you please post something to remind everyone about the Fourth Annual EAEL/NAELB Atlanta Gathering on Monday, Feb. 5th at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Hotel, College Park, GA. There will be a reception Sunday evening. Monday morning shall consist of two workshops. The first is "Funding in 2001" moderated by Richard Eudicone, Liberty Bank and the panel is Larry Grant, Amembal Capital, Kevin Kepp, Fisher-Anderson and Gordon Roberts, Centerpoint Financial Services. The second panel is "New Defenses Against Fraud" moderated by Joe Bonanno, NAELB Legal Counsel and the panel consists of Michael Leichtling, Esq. EAEL Legal Committee Chair, Dwight Galloway, Republic Leasing, Chip Leas, past EAEL President, OFC Capital, Chris Cooper, Alternative Capital, Larry Norwood, Leasing Solutions and Barry Marks, Esq., NAELB Advisory Directory and Past Legal Counsel. Both of these workshops should be jam packed with information. The afternoon shall consist of one-on-one meetings with exhibitors. If anyone has any questions about registrations, they can contact Alison Pryor at EAEL at (914) 381-5830 ATTYJGB@aol.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please Make Correction I'm Darcy Shorman, (VP of Business Development at Leasing Group) and received a copy of your press announcement / news letter today and wanted to address the heading announcement that reads "Dell,Staples, Office Depot Leasing Pioneer Gets First $10 million for Web-Based Financial Sales & Transaction Processing Organization". I'm not sure where you received the information regarding "Office Depot", but, we have not provided financial services for Office Depot. Thanks for making this correction. Sincerely, Darcy Darcy Shorman VP Business Development Leasing Group, Inc. 11000 No. Mopac Expwy., Suite 300 Austin, TX 78759 email: darcy_shorman@leasinggroup.com Direct Line: 512-344-1203 Fax Line: 512-344-1370 Headline is corrected to: Dell,Staples Leasing Pioneer Gets First $10 million for Web-Based Financial Sales & Transaction Processing Organization http://www.leasingnews.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AOL Time Warner posts $1 billion net loss NEW YORK (AP) -- AOL Time Warner, in its first combined earnings report since merging Jan. 11, posted a net loss of more than $1 billion due to merger-related costs. The company cited strong performances at its America Online service, cable television systems and publishing operations. But earnings from music, filmed entertainment and its TV networks dipped in the quarter. For the three months ended Dec. 31, AOL Time Warner said it lost $1.09 billion, or 25 cents per share, in contrast to a loss of $201 million, or 5 cents per share, a year ago. Both figures were calculated as if America Online and Time Warner were operating as a combined company. Pretax operating earnings, however, rose 14 percent. AOL Time Warner said earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization rose to $2.4 billion compared with $2.1 billion a year ago. Revenues rose 8 percent to $10.2 billion from $9.46 billion a year earlier. For the quarter, America Online added 2.1 million subscribers to bring its total to 26.7 million members by year-end. Publishing earnings rose 9 percent on a 7 percent revenue increase. The company's Time Inc. subsidiary is a major magazine publisher with titles such as Time, Sports Illustrated and People. In its filmed entertainment division, AOL Time Warner said earnings fell 16 percent for the quarter as revenue increased slightly. Strong gains in sales of DVD-format videos were offset by weak performing new films from New Line Cinema like ``Little Nicky'' and lower revenue from sales of TV shows for rerun on television. Earnings from its television networks including CNN, Turner Network Television, TBS Superstation and Cartoon Network slipped less than 1 percent in the quarter as revenue rose 4 percent. The company's stock was up $1.29 to $55.60 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ U.S. Auto Sales Dip in January By JIM SUHR .c The Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) - U.S. auto sales remained soft in January, the major domestic manufacturers said Thursday, but they are hoping that fresh interest-rate cuts will revive the wobbly economy and lure consumers back to showrooms. Overall, sales fell 10 percent at the Big Three automakers, with an 11 percent drop in cars and a 9 percent one in trucks. Automakers were upbeat despite the declines, as January's results were expected to be much worse in light of a dismal December, when sales were down about 8 percent. ``After I saw the December sales numbers that were really rotten, I was wondering if I was looking at car sales driving off a cliff and us heading into a recession,'' Burnham Securities analysts David Healy said. ``After looking at January, we're looking at a decline but not a collapse.'' General Motors Corp. reported a 5 percent sales dip last month, while Ford Motor Co.'s sales tumbled 11 percent. January sales were down 16 percent at DaimlerChrysler AG's loss-making Chrysler arm, which has been waging a massive cost-cutting effort that includes plans to scrap 26,000 jobs over the next three years. ``We're very pleased with January's results, but as far as I can tell I haven't heard any champagne corks popping in Ford headquarters,'' said George Pipas, Ford's sales analyst. ``We did slightly better than expectations - we'll take that and turn our attention to February. Automakers sold 17.4 million cars, pickups, vans, minivans and sport utility vehicles last year, compared with 16.9 million in 1999. The market eased in the last few months of 2000 and GM, Ford and Chrysler have trimmed production over the past several weeks to winnow bloated inventories. Automakers hope the recession-wary Federal Reserve's move Wednesday to cut interest rates by a half percentage point - the second such cut in a month - builds consumer confidence and spending, improving traffic at dealerships. Sales comparisons were adjusted to reflect 26 selling days in January compared with 25 in the same month last year. Sales at GM, Ford and DaimlerChrysler do not include their foreign brands. GM's latest results include a 4 percent dip in car sales, a 6 percent drop in demand for light trucks. A high note: a 26 percent jump in Saturn sales that GM attributed to solid marketing, leasing and pricing efforts. ``The bottom line is that the industry has moderated, and there's still uncertainty regarding the direction of the industry and economy,'' said Paul Ballew, GM's director of market analysis. ``But when you read the tea leaves we see a soft landing, and I think the industry will have a pretty good year.'' The 11 percent slide in sales of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles included an 18 percent spike in cars, a 7 percent dip in trucks. Ford's sales exclude its foreign brands. Nearly all of Ford's cars and trucks posted January sales declines, including sales of the Ford Explorer SUV that fell 23 percent, perhaps partly because of lingering fallout over the Firestone tire recall. ``Common sense tells me there's got to be something there'' about the recall's impact on Explorer demand, Pipas said. Still, he cautioned that the popular SUV's sales still outpaced most rivals in its class. On Ford's car side, sales of the Escort dropped 22 percent, the Focus 16 percent. Chrysler's 16 percent dive for January included a 22 percent downturn in its car sales, a 14 percent tumble in truck demand. On Monday, Chrysler said it will scrap 19,000 hourly Chrysler jobs and 6,800 salaried ones, with three-quarters of those cuts expected sometime this year. Chrysler also will idle six plants in the next two years and scale back operations at plants in four states and Canada. Chrysler already has asked for 5 percent price cuts from its suppliers, and plans to slash perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars in advertising and showroom subsidies to its dealers. Chrysler posted a third-quarter loss of $512 million and has warned its fourth-quarter red ink could be more than twice that. Analysts and industry executives have voiced little hope that sales would rebound before this summer, with an economic comeback possible in the second half, giving the industry sales of about 16 million to 16.5 million vehicles this year. The Fed's move Wednesday means a further drop in borrowing costs for millions of Americans as commercial banks immediately announced reductions in their prime lending rate. Even so, the Fed's action came as consumer confidence in the economy fell in January to its lowest point in four years. Results among foreign automakers were mixed. Toyota Motor Co.'s January sales dropped 11 percent, fed by a 21 percent downturn in its car sales. BMW said it 6 percent sales jump in January was driven by demand for its X5 SUV, which sold 3,029 units compared with 836 during the year-ago month. On the Net: http://www.ford.com http://www.gm.com http://www.daimlerchrysler.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TechSmart Raises $15 Million in Second-round Financing
EDGEWOOD, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 1, 2001-- TechSmart, the leader and complete-solution provider in office-technology asset management, announced that it recently secured $15 million in second-round financing. The investors are all top-tier names in venture capital funding - Rho Management, Soros Private Equity Group and Boston Millennia Partners. This financing is enabling TechSmart to expand and enhance both the scope and depth of its asset management capabilities, ensuring that TechSmart consistently achieves or surpasses all of its customers' asset management and equipment value objectives. TechSmart is the market leader in the management, purchase, reconditioning, disposition and sale of pre-owned, off-lease and surplus office-technology equipment, including computers, printers, servers, copiers, datacomm and networking products. TechSmart creates high value for its customers by providing its "suppliers" of equipment - major leasing companies, corporations, retailers/"e"-tailers and OEMs - with the highest possible residual market value and large savings in time, money, people and facilities, while giving its buyers - small-to-medium businesses, schools, hospitals, institutions and individual consumers - excellent equipment and services at great prices. TechSmart is the single-source solution for office technology asset management because it performs all of the steps in the value recovery process, encompassing equipment de-installation and logistics; auditing and testing; reconditioning and repair; warehousing and inventory management; reporting; customer service; and sales and remarketing. "This additional funding allows us to build our leadership position in the office - technology asset management market," said Mike Archambault, President and CEO of TechSmart. "We're very excited about advancing our world-class IT systems and infrastructure even further, strengthening our TechSmart proprietary B-2-B website, enhancing our facilities and expanding our marketing initiatives. These investments will provide our customers with the best service, reporting and results available." A powerful example is TechSmart's additional investment in SAP software, giving customers real-time, on-line reporting that tracks their assets throughout the entire value recovery cycle. "TechSmart's business model is the clear solution to the tremendous and growing challenge of office technology asset management, which is a huge ($300 billion) and fragmented market. TechSmart benefits leasing firms, large corporations and retailers by saving them the very substantial expense of managing these assets, while also making them good money on equipment that may otherwise be sold at `fire-sale' prices or thrown out," noted Joshua Ruch, Managing Partner of Rho Ventures and TechSmart Board Chairman. "The beauty of this model is that it similarly benefits small-to-medium businesses and others with an easy and efficient way to buy office-technology equipment at low cost." TechSmart's customers include such leading companies as Heller Financial, Fleet Capital, CIT, GE Capital and Ameritech. TechSmart received $13 million in first-round financing in 1999. TechSmart provides complete asset management solutions for the office-technology marketplace, as well as customized IT and related services, encompassing the full range of "click-and-brick" services. TechSmart is headquartered in New York, with four state-of-the-art warehouses (New York, Chicago, New Jersey, Florida) and 8 sales offices across the U.S. For more information call 1-800-621-6364 or visit our website at www.techsmart.com. CONTACT: TechSmart, Edgewood Steve McGowan, 631/667-1180 Ext. 240 smcgowan@techsmart.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We announced in December, deal closed late yesterday Wells Fargo Financial Closes Conseco Vendor Deal Wells Fargo Financial has acquired substantially all the assets and business relationships of Conseco Finance Vendor Services (CFVSC), a leasing company based in Paramus, NJ. The acquisition, which closed at end of business yesterday (1/31/01), has become part of Wells Fargo Financial Leasing, based in Des Moines, Iowa. The acquisition includes approximately $960 million in owned and managed leases and a substantial number of vendor relationships. With the acquisition, Wells Fargo Financial Leasing manages approximately $1.4 billion in assets. Wells Fargo Financial Leasing also gains approximately 180 employees of CFVSC in New Jersey and Bloomington, MN. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The
List Orix
( 2/2001) Closes re-discount center, Steve Geller says "goodbye." 11/10 First
Six Month Profits up 14% at Orix! ) 11/8 New President
at Orix appointed 11/10 First Six Month Profits up 14%
at Orix! No negative reports, company appears to be doing very well. 10/2000 "long-term
Outlook has been revised from Stable to Negative" Credit
Allianchat it has changed its name to ORIX Financial Services,
9/2000 Japanese Bank President Commits Suicide (Orix is a 14.7% shareholder
in bank having problems ), ( 8/2000 closes small ticket vendor division in Portland,
Oregon, "Business as usual (in New Jersey and with brokers),"
says Steve Geller) ***Original Purchases by Date by Unicapital American
Capital Resources 2/98 www.leasingnews.org
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