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| December 8, 2000 Headlines-- Dallas
says United Capital "Kickin' and Scratchin'"... "We will survive!" "We are only taking 'cream puff" deals now," Steve Dallas, President of United Capital says. " We are not downsizing. We are trying to take care of the 15 select advisors, our customers, who have been good to us and to lobby for their deals." The main funding "partner" changed their leasing credit guidelines with less than a one day notice, throwing the operating into a turmoil "...with no time to plan or adapt to the rules that changed. " During this time, only eight employees have been let go, according to Dallas, out of up to a 50 full time staff. " We are going to survive, but we have issues that are very pressing to us now, " he says. " We are spending 100% of our time until the end of the year working on our portfolio, concentrating on the performance. This is our number one goal today." Dallas says they are trying to comply with the current guidelines, understand them, see what transactions they have in the pipeline and work them into the system. He will be meeting with his underwriters in New York next week. " Our customers have been very concerned and working with us, trying to help us get things done," he says. " We are going to survive, kicking and scratching... and the first of the year, 2001, we will be back stronger than ever... as we re-group, re-plan, get smarter, and ask our customers to hang in their with us." United
Capital Broker E-Mail Confirmed with a former (as of today, Thursday) employee of United Capital. Lehmen has been auditing for the past two weeks and apparently did not like what they saw. Approximately 50%*** of the staff is gone as of today ( Thursday). Apparently, only collection and billing personnel remain Anyone know the legality/liability of not honoring a written approval? In our case, we have signed docs and have issued purchase orders. Our losses will surely extend beyond the individual commission in terms of lost vendors, etc. Kit, please withhold my name and thank you for the wonderful resource you provide. ( *** Dallas states it is only three employees, not 50%. The information may have come from a "disappointed" or "misinformed" employee? Perhaps there may be more "layoffs," but Dallas is trying to hold it all together. About the legalities of approvals, I don't know...all I know is a deal is not funded until the vendor and broker are paid and the check has cleared. In 1974, major banks stopped leasing the same day, with sign contracts, approvals, and it was quite serious for six months---but who are you going to sue? And in reality, the only ones who will make any money will be the attorneys, and that may be iffy, as often they don't get paid either. However, it looks like United Capital is trying to be as helpful as they can be under the circumstances. If the deal is good, you will find a home for it....editor. ) I
asked readers for copies of e-mails from United Capital ( here are a few, names
edited out, and some further edited to protect the receives name ): "No way has United Closed it's doors. We are here to stay and work hard to keep United Capital one of the best A credit lenders. However, to get us there we are not taking any additional business throughout the remainder of the year. Everything is currently on hold. We are waiting for a statement from Steve Dallas, our President and CEO, to give to our clients / brokers relaying our current status and goals for our future. As soon as I have it you should be receiving a fax and phone call from us. Thanks for your patience and understanding through this difficult time. We hope that our "Select Advisors" -like yourself will stand by us through this regrouping time and join us again at the first of next year. Thanks for your concern!" + + + "Yes, that includes deals currently in for funding. Some files are under review and may fund over the next week or so. (no guarantees) If you would like any documents back on any transactions, please let myself or ***** ASAP. Thanks for understanding." From
a Broker Off the record I can report that they are in serious financial difficulty. They are sending back all docs, not accepting new business. They are millions in the whole and I doubt that they will ever be able to fund again. They are not accepting or returning broker calls. All they are doing now is collection calls. Name withheld ( This was basically confirmed by Steve Dallas, unless the new business is a "cream puff," no more new deals until the first of the year. I would like to commend Mr. Dallas for handling this a lot better than Unicapital handled their situation. The rumor and gossip hurt their company further. Steve Dallas is being forthright, not hiding, not running, but acting as an entrepreneur. Who has not had their problems? And he has them. Our hat should be off to him, and while we may be very competitive in the leasing industry, no one in their right mind gets satisfaction from seeing a company or colleague having problems. When I ran track years ago, we had this sign outside the gym: " A Winner Never Quits, and a Quitter Never Wins." Leasing News salutes Steve Dallas and his staff---editor ). UniCapital
Announces OTC Bulletin Board Inclusion; Bank of America Amendment Extended MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)---UniCapital Corporation (OTCBB:UCPC) announced late Thursday afternoon that its common stock has been included for quotation in the NASD's OTC Bulletin Board Service. The Company's common stock will be quoted under the symbol "UCPC". UniCapital also announced that it has reached an agreement with Bank of America, N.A., its principal financial creditor, to continue through December 8, 2000, the amendment of certain terms of the Company's commercial paper conduit and revolving credit facilities with Bank of America. UniCapital Corporation provides asset-based financing in strategically diverse sectors of the commercial equipment leasing industry. Headquartered in Miami, UniCapital originates, acquires, sells and services equipment leases and arranges structured financing in the big ticket, middle market, small ticket and computer and telecommunications segments of the commercial equipment leasing industry. Certain statements contained in this press release (including, without limitation, statements regarding the Company's relationship with its financial creditors and the Company's restructuring alternatives) may be deemed to be forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and should be read in conjunction with the risk factors set forth in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1999, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those risk factors include, among others, limitations imposed by the Company's credit facilities, risks related to the need for additional capital, risks related to the Company's acquisition strategy, risks arising from the absence of combined operating history for the Company and its subsidiaries, risks related to internal growth and operating strategies, interest rate risks, risks related to fluctuations in quarterly operating results, risks related to consummating securitization transactions and other risks. These risks and other factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements contained in this press release. In addition, results may vary as a result of factors set forth from time to time in the documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results or changes in the factors affecting such forward-looking statements. CONTACT: UniCapital Corporation, Miami Jody Campbell, 305/899-5000 (Investor Relations) I
could get no explanation of this BofA announcement above, so if anyone understand
its meaning, please send to this thick headed editor the interpretation. For whatever it is worth, 12 of the Unicapital e-mail addresses we have, have come back "did not reach the recepient." We are deleting their names as it appears they are no longer with the company. One of them was Mark Speros, and we know he has been gone since November 8th. One of the new ones was Bruce Zwillinger, and last I heard he was still there, but not according to his e-mail. We still have many unicapital people on our list, but whether they are just an address, as was Mark Speros's, we don't know. For all intensive purposes, it looks like BSB Leasing is no more. (
Also if anyone has any comments on this following story, let me know. I think
CIT is a great company on top of the future with many things working in its direction.
Perhaps there is a major company write-off in the future or a foreign country
problem, but if I were an investor, it would be in CIT. What is wrong here? )
CIT Downgraded by Robertson Stephens Robertson Stephens analysts Justin Hughes and Jordan Hymowitz said, "We are downgrading CIT to Market Performer from Long-Term Attractive," said Hughes and Hymowitz. "Given current levels of profitability, expectations of single digit growth for the next 1 1/2 to 2 years, and risk of chargeoffs exceeding management targets, we see little room for multiple expansion and do not believe that CIT shares will outperform the overall market in the current environment. We are reducing our 2000 EPS estimate to $2.32 and our 2001 EPS estimate to $2.46 following revised management guidance at the CIT investor day. Our 2001 estimate is approximately 5% below management guidance because we are assuming charge offs of 80 bps next year, exceeding management's target of 65-75 bps. This is our third estimate reduction to 2001 EPS and fifth reduction to our 2000 estimate." Dropping
Like Flies???? Kit - I'm detecting a trend here. Seems like leasing companies are dropping like flies. But it's not just the lessors, it's the lessees that may be the catalyst. In my line of work (3rd party commercial, leasing collections) I'm seeing bankruptcies on the increase in a big way. I wonder if anyone else has detected the same trend which, by the way, appears to be more of a cyclical thing. It's 1992 all over again. Recession anyone? Thanks for the insightful information that doesn't seem to be available anywhere else. Keep it comin'. John Kenny Receivables Management PO Box 471 North Grafton, MA 01536 ph 508-839-1992 fax 603-658-0463 The Solution to Your Credit & Accounts Receivable Needs A Proud Member of Associated Credit Managers, Inc. www.ASCMI.net ( Where are all the lessess and vendors going? That is how the original The List started. Sierra Cities sent out a memo to its salesmen saying to go after the vendors and the broker business that was going to these companies no longer in business. The sales concept was a good one. My original intent was to confirm what was stated, and then do some research, and thus the list was born...but more with the intent as stated by one of our editorial advisors: Bruce Kropschot: To
Online or Not to Online? Kit-- I have found that when I can work with vendors, my job is easier. In an effort to reduce costs, I have looked at all possibilities. The banks seem to feel that Internet Banking has reduced their costs significantly. I am not sure I agree. I am still working to get an understanding. I am researching more intently now based solely on your experiences. Their pricing model does not make sense to us. It is almost like a cell phone. You are much further along in understanding and using the internet. It doesn't work for me either. Still I would like to know why it doesn't work and what has to happen for it to work? If a vendor is signing up with online leasing companies, why wouldn't they sign up with a company who has online capabilities, but also offers professional service? Our Firm is constantly looking for ways to build new relationships. And to improve how things are done. Clearly, you do the same. Andrew Thorn ( Several of the past leasing associations have had conferences covering exactly what you are asking. We have on line http://www.leasingnews.org/elease.htm We also list equipment leasing software that is now available. In my opinion, a website is as important as a business card. It can be simple, or it can be action packed. It should have an application, and better yet, an on line application, exactly for the reasons you stated. How much you devote to yellow pages, newspaper, magazine advertising or the internet, depends on your budget and marketing abilities. I would strongly recommend every leasing company have an on line application. It is as important as having a voice telephone or paper fascimile. To sum this up, yes, you should have on line application. How much you want to spend depends on how serious you want to be on the world wide web.---editor ) Duitsoftware Kit-- Here is a new software progam for leasing companies not listed in your eLease software list. The DUIT! Vendor Affiliate Program enables you to effortlessly increase your volume of business by offering the leasing alternative on vendors' websites, with vendor-specific rate-calculators and vendor-specific lease applications. The vendor first comes to your site, clicks on a vendor link, such as "Vendors only", fills out the application for your affiliate program, and submits it to you. Once you approve that vendor, you give them access to their own specific rate calculator, and their own specific online application that they they link from their website. Totally seamless. Additionally, the rate calculators are accessible only by you, and feature an intuitive, user-friendly graphical interface to quickly and easily create, edit, delete, and publish leasing multipliers for each rate calculator. DUIT! Vendor Affiliate is totally standalone, saving you the frustrating costs of integration. DUIT! is so affordable, it pays for itself with just one lease. Note, the customer never leaves the POINTOFSALE atmosphere. The vendor will more often than not refer the customer to the leasing company that makes the vendor's job much easier. And it doesn't get any easier than this for the vendor, the customer, or the leasing company. All the while, the customer feels that their hand is being held through the entire sales process. Why don't we get together in a couple of days, once you have had the chance to look over this information? I'd feel more comfortable if we were to go over this together. I can assure you that we can get you up and running in a week or two. It's just that quick. No misrepresentations, no empty promises. We are here to help you become successful. Read about DUIT! here: http://enterprise.duitsoftware.com/duitsoftware/duit.t Visit a demo leasing website: http://enterprise.duitsoftware.com/duit/acme/ Our website: http://www.duitsoftware.com Alex Lorenz Director of Marketing and Sales, DuitSoftware 800.880.7555 alex@duitsoftware.com Want to lease online? DUIT! Now! ( Thank you. At your request,we have included your company with other internet leasing software--editor ). http://www.leasingnews.org/elease/software.htm Heavy
Truck Orders Down 45% By Tim Burt, Financial Times If the U.S. passenger car market is heading for a soft landing, then the country's heavy truck market has hit a brick wall. After four years of record growth, demand for big trucks - of more than 15 tons - has fallen sharply and prompted radical restructuring in almost every manufacturer exposed to the U.S. According to industry executives and analysts, net orders have fallen by about 45 percent from last year's level. Even so, manufacturers have been slow to react. This autumn, demand for new trucks has settled at around 11,500 a month. But the industry is still churning out vehicles at a running rate of 16,000. Excess capacity has already begun to hit prices, with a knock-on effect on both top line sales and profits. Merrill Lynch, the U.S. investment bank, estimates that prices have fallen by 30 to 50 percent. It fears that the North American market will be down 20 percent to 230,000 units for the full year. That grim outlook has already begun to hurt the largest truckmakers. Volvo, the Swedish commercial vehicles group, has seen margins in heavy trucks shrink to 0.4 per cent in the third quarter, compared with 3.1 per cent in the same period of last year. The company, which is awaiting department of justice approval for its acquisition of Renault's RVI and Mack truck operations, has blamed the U.S. almost entirely for pushing profits in trucks down from SKr2.13bn to SKr729m for the first nine months of the year. "Deliveries in the declining North American market decreased by more than half in the third quarter compared with the year-earlier period, and competition stiffened," according to the company. DaimlerChrysler, Volvo's arch rival, has suffered similarly. While its truck profits have been held up by a strong performance in Europe, its U.S. Freightliner business has witnessed a significant drop in sales. Given the state of the market, some analysts are also questioning its decision to acquire Western Star, the Canadian truckmaker, and the engine manufacturer, Detroit Diesel, just as the market appeared to be peaking. The rapid downturn is due to a combination of factors, for some of which the truckmakers have only themselves to blame. In the benign environment of strong economic growth and low interest rates three years ago, the manufacturers began to chase volume with very attractive leasing deals. Many of them, particularly from DaimlerChrysler, included guaranteed buy-backs on generous terms. Growing demand for road transport and a shortage of drivers fuelled that market. Trucking companies decided the best way to retain drivers was to offer them new trucks, with most of the financing risk retained by the manufacturers. The purchase of so many new trucks in the late 1990s created an oversupply of used vehicles, driving down prices for almost-new vehicles. The sting in the tail is that manufacturers are having to buy back leased vehicles at up to 30 per cent more than their market value. If that was not bad enough, fears of rising interest rates and higher oil prices have persuaded many logistics and transport groups to postpone new truck orders. John Lawson, head of automotive research at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney, says manufacturers could have moved faster to minimize the pain of the current downturn. "Order intake had been falling for 12 months before the manufacturers decided to cut production. Now, production rates for the fourth quarter are likely to be at much lower levels." Volvo's action is typical of the restructuring now under way, with producers, including Freightliner, Navistar, Paccar and Mack, following suit. In its U.S. operations, the Swedish group has cut production by 20 per cent and shed about 1,000 workers. Company insiders admit that volatile demand is likely to affect its profits into 2001, and it could be the middle of next year before excess stocks are worked out of the system. Freightliner has also made clear that its fourth quarter figures will be disappointing, but at least the global nature of its parent company offers some protection. The same cannot be said for some other U.S. truckmakers, particularly Navistar. Even so, it would be wrong to say that the the U.S. truck market was in decline; the sector has always been highly cyclical. Greg Melich at Morgan Stanley Dean Witter points out that a 10-15 per cent drop in orders next year would still leave the market running at its fairly healthy level of two years ago. "How bad it is now only reflects how far the market has climbed since 1997," he says. "It is not the depths of despair, but the market is falling back from extraordinary levels." That might be little consolation to the assembly workers losing their jobs at the truckmakers, or the shareholders of companies whose share price has been punished. The decline is certainly serious and could create some new merger candidates. The lesson now is whether the truckmakers will ease production on a permanent basis and be more circumspect about leasing deals. Only then will the market become less cyclical. On past records, however, it is not clear that the industry is willing to learn from previous mistakes. Ag
Services of America, Inc and Powerfarm.com(TM) Partner with EverdreamCorporation
for Farm Business Computer Solutions CEDAR FALLS, Iowa, Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Ag Services of America, Inc. (NYSE: ASV) and its wholly owned subsidiary Powerfarm, Inc. announced today the completion of an alliance with Everdream Corporation to bring an outsourced information technology solution to farmers and agricultural businesses through Powerfarm.com. The partnership with Everdream Corporation will provide farmers and agricultural businesses access to computing solutions to more effectively manage their operations. The Fremont, Calif. based company will provide outsourced IT services on a subscription computing basis utilizing HP desktops, notebook PCs and Netservers. Standard package features offered to customers include a single point-of-contact 24/7 Solutions Center, automated backup, virus protection, bug fixes, virtual desk-side assistance, self-healing capabilities, unlimited nation-wide Internet access including a Web-based email account, Web design and hosting and high speed DSL connectivity. "No other computer solution offers the flexibility, service and value of Everdream," said Tad Mozena, Vice President Marketing. "That is why we are excited to present this powerful tool to producers and independent agricultural businesses. This solution provides a strong information technology department available to producers and dealers so they can take computer worries and problems off their list of business concerns." "Ag Services of America and Powerfarm.com have become powerful brands within the agriculture industry, and we're delighted in this opportunity to partner with them," said Gary Griffiths, Everdream CEO. "We believe the agriculture industry is ready to harvest the benefits of outsourced information technology, but without a partner with Powerfarm's specific domain expertise, penetration would be extremely difficult." Powerfarm.com has compiled the most comprehensive assortment of agriculture products, services, credit and leasing options available on the Internet today. Products currently available include seed, fertilizer and crop protection products, along with headline ag news, market quotes and weather. Growers can shop at their convenience day or night for products and sign up for additional services like crop insurance, grain marketing programs, crop scouting and soil sampling services. Within the Powerfarm Community, growers can post questions for the company's agronomists and Certified Crop Advisors, as well as communicate with other producers around the world to share ideas and discuss topics of concern. Ag Services of America, Inc., which operates Powerfarm.com, is based in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and is a leading supplier of input financing and agricultural inputs, including seed, chemicals, fertilizer and cash advances to primarily corn and soybean growers in the U.S. ASV's one-stop shopping business model includes competitive and flexible financing packages through its AgriFlex Credit(R) program combined with the most comprehensive offering of agricultural inputs from national sources such as American Cyanamid, Asgrow, Bayer, Dekalb, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, Garst, Monsanto, Pioneer Hi-Bred, and Syngenta. The Company also provides ancillary services such as crop insurance, crop scouting and grain marketing. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. This release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, include the following: general economic conditions within the agricultural industry; competitive factors and pricing pressures; changes in product mix; changes in the seasonality of demand patterns; changes in weather conditions; changes in agricultural regulations; unknown risks; the amount and availability under its asset backed securitization program; and the risks described from time to time in the Company's SEC reports. AgriFlex Credit is a registered trademark and Powerfarm.com and Powerfarm Credit are trademarks of Ag Services of America, Inc. All other trademarks or product names are the property of their respective owners. For more information visit http://www.agservices.com , http://www.powerfarm.com or http://www.everdream.com SOURCE Ag Services of America Inc. CO: Ag Services of America Inc.; Powerfarm, Inc.; Everdream Corporation ST: Iowa, California IN: AGR MLM CPR SU: JVN --Y H # SANTA
ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 8, 2000--Amplicon Inc.'s (Nasdaq:AMPI)
board of directors Friday declared a quarterly cash dividend in the
amount of 4 cents ($.04) per share.
The dividend will be payable on Jan. 5, 2001 to all stockholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 22, 2000. Amplicon leases high-technology capital assets nationwide utilizing an innovative sales management organization that delivers cost-effective leasing alternatives to meet customer needs. CONTACT: Amplicon Inc., Santa Ana S. Leslie Jewett, 714/751-7551 ljewett@amplicon.com
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