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April 20, 2001
Special Report eLeasing Software Up-Date Headlines--- The United Capital Thrust Appears to be "Spectrum Leasing" Leasing Association Conference Up-Date Michigan Heritage Bancorp Announces Formation of MHB Leasing, Inc. Computer Makers Take it in the Shorts Want Beach Front Property???? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ United Capital United Capital is now operating as Spectrum Funding Group, LLC, Austin, Texas, with Steve Dallas, President. If you call, you can reach his voice mail at Spectrum. It is a sister company, although may be a separate corporation. We have reports from brokers of leases caught in "suspension" at United Capital, but the lessee or vendor contacted by Spectrum. We have several complaints on this practice. E-mail addresses to United Capital on our mailing list bounce back. Perhaps United Capital is technically collecting lease payments or whatever, and perhaps the e-mail is due to other reasons, such as lack of payment to the carrier, who knows, but from what we have learned, Spectrum Leasing is the new "United Capital" without the securization and perhaps without the warehouse lines or debt of United Capital. We are attempting to obtain a statement from Steve Dallas. _______________________________________________________ eLeasing software ( this is better formatted on line at: http://www.leasingnews.org/elease/software.htm Top eLeasing software companies, as ranked by employees. Rank Company Name Year Founded CEO Employees Number Clients (Users) (Or Units Sold)Major Clients 1 Capital Stream 1995 Stephen Campbell 130 360 Customers/ 40 Customer Subscribers Bank of America, Simens Financial Services, Textron Financial 2 Funder Online Corp. 1995 Peter Hyne 60 4500 Clients/Users Major Canadian Banks 3 eFinance Corp 1999 Reid Rutherford 40 10+ Users NEC, Costco, eScout, Navidec 4 Leaseforum.com 1998 Susan S. Franklin 20 25+ Clients N/R 5 WiredCapital.com 2000 Kevin Riegelsberger 15 N/R N/R 6 LeaseNow.com 1988 Bob Rodi 11 1200+ installed users Subway Sandwiches, Quiznos Corp, Mail Boxes Etc. 7 Summit National Inc. 1977 Ken Duffy N/R N/R 8 a-r-m.com 9 Cyberlease 10 Docutouch.com 11 Duitsoftware.com 12 eCredit.com 13 Emerson Financial Services 14 Free Decision 15 iLease 16 Isis Systems 17 Lease Point 18 Leasepricing 19 Nova Metric 20 Securelease.net 21 Seismiq 22 Statementone.com 23 Thoughtworks.com 24 Totalfunding.com 25 TRUSTe.org 26 Ven Serve Only seven of the 26 software leasing companies that Leasing News Josh Boucher contacted by telephone and by e-mail responded to our poll. The largest and most successful is Capital Stream. One of the first with an internet program, perhaps even the first, Summit with Millenium did respond. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MHB Leasing Formed to Service Michigan Area here is their press release ######################################################## FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich., -- Michigan Heritage Bancorp, a $117 million asset holding company for Michigan Heritage Bank, a full service commercial bank based in Farmington Hills, Michigan, is pleased to announce the formation of the bank's wholly-owned subsidiary, MHB Leasing, Inc. The new entity shall serve to expand the bank's capabilities in equipment leasing by providing tax-oriented true leases and other structured lease products. MHB Leasing will be assisted by Harrison Capital Corporation, a private investing firm, in the structuring and marketing of its new lease products. Through Harrison Capital, MHB Leasing will also form a strategic alliance with Fort Street Capital, LLC, a Detroit based, certified minority- owned equipment leasing company. This strategic alliance will assist MHB Leasing's customers in meeting their minority sourcing goals. For Michigan Heritage Bank, the formation of MHB Leasing represents another step toward providing its corporate customers with a complete line of commercial products and services, and will complement the bank's present lease discounting program. "These new structured lease products add considerable flexibility to our range of corporate lending and leasing products," stated Michigan Heritage Bank President Tony Albanese. "Although our primary focus will be on offering structured leases ranging in size between $100,000 and $1 million, we will have the resources and capabilities of providing financing for much larger transactions." As Michigan Heritage Bank Chairman Rick Zamojski points out: "MHB Leasing customers will not only be able to obtain competitively-priced financing for their equipment purchases but, through our affiliation with Fort Street, will be able to realize important minority business development objectives." Fort Street is certified by the Michigan Minority Business Development Council and is a key provider of equipment financing to the automotive industry. MHB Leasing's target market is primarily Michigan and the adjacent Midwest states. A broad range of asset types can be considered for its structured lease financings. Michigan Heritage Bank provides a full range of financial services including savings and checking accounts, certificates of deposits, mortgage loans, home equity loans, retirement and investment services, commercial equipment financing and more. SOURCE Michigan Heritage Bancorp CO: Michigan Heritage Bancorp; MHB Leasing, Inc. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Equipment Finance Journal Extends Contest to Obtain More Votes ================================================= PIONEER VOTING EXTENDED! The EFJ will be accepting nominations for the Pioneers of Leasing feature article, which is slated for this Spring/Summer until April 30. Visit http://www.efj.com/pages/poll_form.asp to cast your vote today! ================================================= Likes Charlie One of the things I have always loved about Charlie Lester is that he not only calls them as he sees them, he calls them as they really are! Mark Speros, Director Broker Division Landmark Financial Corp. Mark@lfcinc.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leasing Association Conferences We hope to have a report on the leasing association conferences, such as the one now underway in Chicago, Equipment Leasing Association, and the one at the end of this month, Eastern Association of Equipment Lessor, Puerto Rico. It appears the National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers Conference in New Orleans next month will have over 400 in attendance. We hope to get a statement from Michael Meacher, president. The United Association of Equipment Leasing Conference for May in Scottsdale, Arizona, has not had much the response as hoped, it is reported. This cannot be the fault of the UAEL staff, who seems to have a fax a day on line, a lot of mail, and every other day e-mail. They cannot be faulted for promotion, such as this latest one: Registrations for the UAEL Spring Education Conference are rapidly coming in! This year's SEC is filled with hours of education and networking opportunities that will help you and your company during these times of change in our industry.
Start the conference off with a round of golf and then meet old friends and new at the Welcome Reception on Thursday evening. For the "First Timer" to a UAEL conference, don't forget to attend the First Timer's Reception. Friday and Saturday are packed with educational sessions put on by industry leaders as well as keynote speakers on negotiation skills, building and nurturing business relationships and the state of the economy. And as always, Saturday night will be an adventure....don't forget your Western gear!
Registration is still open so visit our web site at www.uael.org and register today!
See you in Scottsdale, Joanie Dalton - Managing Director UAEL - United Association of Equipment Leasing 520 Third Street, #201 Oakland, CA 94607 (510) 444-9235 x27 * (510) 444-1346 fax joanie@uael.org www.uael.org You can also go here to download in Adobe the Gold Rush Conference Brochure: http://www.leasingnews.org/archives/March01/3-16-01a.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Makers Take It in the Shorts Despite what you may have read elsewhere, all the computer makers are having some serious problems with defaults and other problems. Even 3Com, Sun, Cisco who made easy leases and loans to start-ups are finding some serious defaults, coming at the wrong time, when sales are going the other way. This has a major impact in the equipment leasing industry. The first place this showed up was in inventories. Although many play it close to the vest with their orders, Intel, the maker of Pentium chips, showed a first quarter 80% loss, while Feburary, the latest statistics available, shoed a worldwide semiconductor drop of $1 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. January sales were $16.6 billion, worldwide, and February $15.5 billion. "The industry is continuing to experience lower sales due to an inventory overhand and macroeconomic factors, " says George Scalise, president of the SIA. The leader of personal computers, located nearby in San Jose ( the San Jose Arena is now the Compaq Arena ), has lost their lead in sales to Dell, but the real company hit was Gateway. By Bruce V. Bigelow San Diego UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER April 20, 2001 Computer-maker Gateway, which told analysts to expect first-quarter write-offs of roughly $250 million as part of its restructuring, said yesterday that the write-offs had ballooned to $533 million. "They are higher than expected, due to some conscious decisions that we made," said Gateway chairman and chief executive Ted Waitt. "But we feel these are the right decisions made for the long term to get back to a more profitable model." Waitt resumed command at Gateway's San Diego headquarters in January after a worsening slump in personal computer sales last year finally swamped the company's financial performance during the Christmas shopping season. Waitt quickly replaced almost all the senior executives. He moved to slash expenses and refocus the company in a "back to basics" campaign intended to restore Gateway's vaunted relationship with its customers. Still, in first-quarter results posted yesterday, Gateway reported a loss that was far bigger than expected -- while sagging PC sales and intensifying competition dragged down revenues. San Diego-based Gateway reported a loss of $503 million, or $1.56 per share, during the three months that ended March 31. That compares with a profit of $119.6 million, or 36 cents per share, during the same quarter last year. The company posted sales of $2.03 billion. Analysts had expected the company to report a loss closer to 1 cent a share on sales of $2.04 billion, according to a consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call/Thomson Financial. Gateway said its first-quarter unit sales declined 12 percent from a year ago, a trend that's expected to continue. Excluding the write-downs and other one-time charges, Gateway executives said the company had a pre-tax loss of $6 million -- or about a penny a share -- for the quarter. Gateway attributed its bigger-than-expected write-offs to two decisions made after Feb. 28, when Waitt introduced his new management team and outlined the company's restructuring plans to analysts and journalists. The first decision was to write off $140 million related to Gateway's 1999 acquisition of Massachusetts-based NECX, a privately held e-commerce business whose online shopping technology is now being scrapped. Gateway also decided to write off an additional $100 million in questionable loans the company had made to its customers. Gateway's consumer loan business became a contentious issue last year under former chief executive Jeff Weitzen. Analysts argued the company had not reserved enough money to cover bad loans. In February, the company sold about $500 million of these loans to a loan servicing partner at $500 million, or book value. Now, after writing off the $100 million, chief financial officer Joe Burke said he was confident the company had taken adequate reserves for what's left of its consumer loans. Burke said Gateway will continue to issue loans to its most credit worthy customers, but will no longer finance those with poor credit. "I don't want to be talking about this again in the future," Burke told analysts yesterday. The extra charges came on top of the cost of Gateway's restructuring plan -- which included store closings, layoffs and other consolidations. Gateway executives said in February those costs would range from $150 million to $275 million. The actual amount was about $250 million, according to results disclosed yesterday. The 38-year-old Waitt, who still owns a 30 percent stake in the company he founded in 1985, told analysts during a conference call yesterday: "We're making a lot of progress as to the health of our operations." But the turnaround is proving to be more costly than expected. Gateway began writing off its losses during the last three months of 2000, even as the extent of the company's disastrous sales slowdown became evident. The company took a $187 million charge in the fourth quarter of last year, which covered about 3,000 layoffs and other losses the company incurred. Added to the $533 million in write-offs taken during the first quarter, Gateway has racked up $720 million in special charges over the past six months. While Burke and Waitt say Gateway is now poised for recovery, analysts say the PC industry is hardly a nurturing environment. "Dell is on a track to try to put as many people out of business as they possibly can," said Rob Enderle, a research fellow for the Giga Information Group. "They are specifically targeting Compaq accounts, but there already is some collateral damage," Enderle said. "Micron Technology is already a casualty." Idaho-based Micron Electronics announced last month that it plans to sell its PC manufacturing business, and Enderle said Toshiba and Fujitsu are also reeling. Gateway may be next on the list, Enderle said. "We've got an increasing list of companies that we're not too sure we're going to see in 18 months," Enderle said. "Or at least we're not too sure they're going to be in the PC business in 18 months." The Reuters news service reported yesterday that Gateway's share of the U.S. market slipped during the first quarter from 9.1 percent to 8.5 percent. Gateway's shares rose $1.08 yesterday in regular trading to $18.38, but the stock slipped back in after-hours trading on news of the loss. The company's stock trades under the ticker symbol GTW. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beach Front Property In times like these, buy beach front property might be the right thing for the equipment leasing executive. With great views, sand and sun literally at your feet, a beach house is the ultimate status symbol. Even though beach front property is never cheap, the prices of the homes included today in our round up of the most expensive beach houses for sale in the U.S. make everything else look like a drop in the ocean. From Maine to Malibu, or Long Island to the Big Island, see Forbes.com Real Estate editor Felicia Paik `s complete list at: www.forbes.com/topbeachhomes Some highlights: -- The most expensive home on the list is also the most expensive home in the U.S. -- The oldest beach home on the list dates back to the early 1900s -- One of the homes is on the grounds of the Four Seasons Hualalai Resort -- Properties range from a half-acre to 13 acres -- The second most expensive home was originally built for the duPont family www.leasingnews.org |