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Kit
Menkin’s Leasing News www.leasingnews.org Tuesday, January 8 ,2002
Headlines---- Pitney Bowes Enters the Franchise Finance Market Imperial Credit Industries,/ Southern Pacific Bank Management Appointments Unicapital Up-date---Irwin Staub SEC Eyes Xerox Lease Accounting Sales Talent Is Not Enough---John C. Dean, Alta Group ICON Capital Acquires $7.75 Million Portfolio Salestax Streamline ----Software Issue—Dennis Brown Equipment Leasing and Financial Foundation—Lisa A. Levine Universal Express Renames/ Rebrands Several Subsidiaries
Holiday Internet Shopping up 50%----Women Outshop Men on Line ## Denotes press release __________________________________________________________________ Thursday, 1pm, LIVE www.leasingnews.org/newsmaker.htm Bill Hansen, Commercial Money Center He puts them together. Some hate him, other love him. But he gets the deals done and his main goals: to keep the players "healthy" during the process--- -Find out how this ex-football coach not only makes it to the playoff's each year---but creates a win-win along the way…Champ of the Equipment Leasing Super Bowl BILL HANSEN Thursday, January 10th www.leasingnews.org/newsmaker.htm ### ############################ ######################## Pitney Bowes Enters the Franchise Finance Market Adds Veteran Team to Cover This Segment STAMFORD, Conn, -- Pitney Bowes Inc. (NYSE:PBI) today announced that Pitney Bowes Capital Services is expanding into franchise financing with the addition of a team of veteran finance professionals who bring established relationships in the franchising marketplace. The new franchise finance group will offer flexible solutions to multi-unit franchise operators, delivering real estate and leasehold finance, equipment finance, acquisition finance, remodel finance, and business-value finance. "For more than 25 years, Pitney Bowes Capital Services has been providing creative financial solutions that help organizations achieve their business strategies and goals," said Matthew S. Kissner, Group President, Pitney Bowes Information Based Solutions and Chief Venture Development Officer. "Our ability to underwrite and self-fund transactions, combined with the experience of our new franchise finance team, makes us uniquely qualified to succeed in the franchise finance marketplace." To lead the new effort, Pitney Bowes Capital Services brought in a team of well- established, veteran franchise finance professionals formerly with Finova Capital Corp. Elliot Freeman will head the group as Vice President and General Manager. Other new team members include Michael Vallorosi as Director of Sales, Michael Veneziano as Director of Credit, and Christine Currens as Manager of Documentation. "We are dedicated to delivering financial solutions tailored to the needs of the multi-unit franchise operator," said Keith Williamson, President of Pitney Bowes Capital Services. "Our knowledge of business finance and our ability to get the deal done, added to the strong industry contacts and experience of our new franchise finance group, makes Pitney Bowes Capital Services the premier financial partner for major franchise operators." Pitney Bowes Inc. is a $4 billion global provider of integrated mail and document management solutions headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. The company serves more than 2 million businesses of all sizes through dealer and direct operations. Pitney Bowes Capital Services operates through Pitney Bowes Credit Corporation, a subsidiary of Pitney Bowes Inc. For additional information about Pitney Bowes, please visit our website atwww.pitneybowes.com. Elliot Freeman, Vice President and General Manager · 30 years experience in financial services with several major companies · Most recently: Senior VP of Sales, ADVANTA LEASING SERVICES · Prior: VP & National Sales Mgr., Franchise Finance Group, FINOVA CAPITAL CORP. Michael Vallorosi, Director of Sales · 16 years experience in financial services with several major companies · Most recently: VP Marketing, Franchise Finance, LEHMAN BROTHERS · Prior: VP Marketing, Franchise Finance Group, FINOVA CAPITAL CORP. Michael Veneziano, Director of Credit · 18 years experience in financial services with several major companies · Most recently: VP Credit, Capital Markets, SIEMENS FINANCIAL SERVICES, Inc. · Prior:Direstor of Credit, Franchise Finance Group, FINOVA CAPITAL CORP. Christine Currens, Manager of Documentation · 17 years experience in financial services with several major companies · Most recently: Director Contract Administration, CIT · Prior: Director Contract Administration, Franchise Finance Group, FINOVA CAPITAL CORP. ( Courtesy ELAonline.com ) ### #### #################################### ############ Imperial Credit Industries, Inc. and Southern Pacific Bank Announce Management Appointments
TORRANCE, Calif / -- Imperial Credit Industries, Inc. ("ICII" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: ICII) announced today key management changes at the Company and its principal subsidiary, Southern Pacific Bank. Effective immediately, Richard S. Cupp has become Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of ICII. As previously announced, Cupp had been appointed Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Pacific Bank, subject to non-objection by the Bank's principal regulatory authorities. Non-objection notices have now been received and the Bank appointments are also effective January 7, 2002. Brad Plantiko, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of ICII, was appointed to the position of President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, also effective January 7, 2002. Plantiko retains his position as EVP, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Southern Pacific Bank. Michael Riley, Chairman of ICII, remarked: "These changes reflect the ongoing restructuring of the Company and the Bank. Critical to the success of ICII and Southern Pacific Bank is a committed, experienced and high performing team. We are building the base for that success through these appointments." General Description of the Company Imperial Credit Industries, Inc., is the parent company of Southern Pacific Bank, a FDIC insured industrial bank headquartered in Torrance, California. Southern Pacific Bank offers a wide variety of commercial loan and lease products to its borrowers and certificates of deposit, money market, passbook, and IRA accounts to its depositors. Southern Pacific Bank offers loans through its core lending divisions, including: Coast Business Credit -- specializing in asset-based commercial lending; Imperial Warehouse Finance -- offering residential mortgage repurchase facilities; the Lewis Horwitz Organization -- the premier lender to independent film and television production companies; the Income Property Lending Division -- lending to multifamily and commercial property owners; and Southern Pacific BanCapital -- offering equipment leasing to middle market businesses. For further information contact: Brad Plantiko, President, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operating Officer of Imperial Credit Industries, Inc., +1-310-791-8096 ############### #################################### ############# ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Unicapital Up-Date----Irwin Staub Recently we received a request for a position at Unicapital. We not only check all requests for word count, but that they are “ for real.” We have received “jokes” or “false ads.” I originally thought this was another “trick”, but evidently it is not. From Irwin Staub: This is a "Job Wanted", I've been working for one of the companies that Unicapital bought out Jacom Computer for 16 years. Now that Unicapital went bankrupt and laid off approximately 900 employees they have only 12 employees left 11 in the main office in Miami I'm the only employee left in the the Jacom building doing the collections of past due invoices and renewals I collected to date approx. $550,000. I know you said you should write 25 words or less but here are some other jobs I did. Supervise financial division of the sales department to ensure invoices are paid on a timely basis. Oversee generation of original invoices for new leases and termination of old leases. Supervise termination and final payment of leases during bankruptcy proceedings. I did approx. 50mm a year in funding with banks per year along with excel spreadsheet preparation. By the way I have a print-out of 11,000 Lessee's that did business with Jacom Computer that could be very useful to a Leasing Company for new business. Thanks for everything, Irwin Staub 845-365-2266
email: istaub@unicapitalcorp.com city: Northern submit1: Submit Your Job Posting state: NJ type: funding description: Coordinate all aspects of financing for leased equipment, prepare necessary documentation for discounting with banks. Handle renewals of and amendments to lease schedules. SEC Eyes Xerox Lease Accounting .c The Associated Press
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) - The Securities and Exchange Commission has told Xerox Corp. that its method of accounting for sales-type leases does not follow standard practice. SEC's Office of Chief Accountant advised Xerox that it has not followed the methodology required by the Financial Accounting Standards Board, Xerox said in a regulatory filing Monday. The FASB sets accounting standards for U.S. companies. At issue is when Xerox accounts for revenue from selling and leasing its equipment. The SEC has been investigating whether Xerox booked too much revenue up front rather than over the life of leases. Xerox said it believes the financial results it reports comply with the standards, but earlier restated some of its finances. The regulatory filing represents an update of the SEC's investigation and does not reflect a new or expanded probe, said Christa Carone, a Xerox spokeswoman. Xerox also announced Monday its intention to raise $500 million for general corporate purposes, including paying off debt. The company will issue senior notes to qualified institutional buyers. Last week, Moody's Investors Service placed the long-term debt ratings of Xerox under review for a possible downgrade. Xerox has already seen its debt ratings reduced to junk bond status. Xerox stock was down 4.7 percent, or 47 cents, at $9.58 in trading Monday on the New York Stock Exchange. On the Net: www.xerox.com __________________________________________________________________ #### ################################# ################# Sales Talent Is Not Enough Lake Tahoe, Nevada,--Like many industries, the equipment leasing industry is faced with consolidation, increased competition and narrow profit margins. Leasing firms are seeking new revenue streams in seemingly related fields, but they need to undergo more in-depth analysis prior to diversification, says a leading consulting firm which has studied some of the more prominent failures in this $244 billion industry. Diversifying can be a good way to grow, says consultant John C. Deane, principal of The Alta Group, of Lake Tahoe, Nev. However, too many lessors have cut corners in the diversification process by simply hiring a sales person who knows the new market and not developing a business model with proper controls and management oversight. The Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation commissioned The Alta Group to examine whether the recent failures or “pull-backs” of high-profile businesses in the equipment leasing industry were a result of avoidable problems or an indication of weaknesses in the industry. Alta studied 10 companies, including Comdisco, T&W, and El Camino, for its report titled Perfect Storms: Why Major Lessors Have Exited the Marketplace, which was released at the Equipment Leasing Association’s (ELA) annual convention in October. At least 50 percent of the companies studied by Alta became victims because their business cycles were inadequately managed. To some extent, many companies also went too far afield of their core capabilities and were unable to explain their businesses well enough to lenders, Alta’s study reports. The Alta Group developed a process for analyzing lessor operations for the study. The process, called ValueCAP™ is now being used to analyze business plans and weigh their merits against their costs and other factors. This methodology looks for alignment issues by examining objectives, approach, tactics, controls, execution and results. Within each of these categories, analysts look to see if skills and systems are in alignment and who the competitors may be. This process can identify hidden problems and oversights in a firm’s growth strategy. For example, in the case of El Camino, Alta reports the lessor expanded into technology services because the company had specialized in technology equipment leasing and viewed this as a logical extension of that business. But they learned too late that it was a very different business, with very different revenue sources and control points. “UniCapital decided it was going to push aircraft financing only to discover it was a much different business than what they understood and in this case too rapid growth was a contributing factor,” says Deane. The Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation’s study conducted by Alta has generated strong interest among lessors. “With the current economic picture, it’s clear to us that companies really want to learn from other companies what they’ve done that was successful or wasn’t. This is the first time that all of this type of information has been put together in one report,” says Lisa Levine, executive director of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation.
“This has been the most downloaded report that the Foundation or ELA has ever had. There have been more than 6,000 downloads of it, and we sent out 1,000 hard copies at the convention and 1,000 more since then. The Foundation’s mission is to provide information and research on the equipment lease and financing industry. All products developed for the Foundation are free and we are supported in full by contributions,” Levine explains. The report is one example of the type of business intelligence Alta gathers and applies for its clients. “We don’t develop leasing management strategy," Deane says. "Our role is to help management challenge it and make sure they are entering new territory with their eyes wide open.” The Alta Group, which began operations in 1991 and grew to 12 principals in offices throughout the United States and London, provides strategic and tactical consulting and advisory services to lessors, lessees, manufacturers and others active in the equipment financing and leasing industry. Most of the major lessors in the U.S. are included on Alta’s client list. Perfect Storms: Why Major Lessors Have Exited the Marketplace is available at the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation’s Web site, ttp://www.leasefoundation.org, and at www.thealtagroup.com Deane plans to provide more details from this study in an investor conference planned by the Equipment Leasing association in early March. ### ###################################### ################### ##### ################################## ############## ICON Capital Acquires $7.75 Million Portfolio San Francisco, CA -- ICON Capital Corp., on behalf of ICON Income Fund 9 and ICON Income Fund 8B of which it is sole General Partner / Manager, announces the acquisition of a $7.75 million portfolio of equipment leases from a West Coast-based bank ( part of the agreement was the bank was not to be named. editor ).. The portfolio includes 31 lease schedules on lease to five lessees covering material handling equipment, manufacturing equipment and technology equipment with an original cost of $9.35 million. The transaction is the first for ICON 9, which is currently raising $100 million of equity and expects to acquire $250 million of equipment in the year ahead. ICON Capital Corp. is a full service leasing company specializing in residual based equipment transactions of a wide range of essential use equipment to creditworthy lessees. Based in New York with its acquisitions group based in San Francisco, ICON and its affiliates have raised several hundred million dollars from limited partners, acquired more than $1 billion of equipment for its managed funds, and manages this equipment for over 23,000 investors. For additional information, contact Lindsey McLorg, Vice President, Acquisitions, at (415) 733-5057, lmclorg@iconcapital.com and please visit ICON’s website at www.iconcapital.com. #### #################################### ####################### Salestax Streamline ----Software Issue http://www.leasingnews.org/PDFFiles/Computer%20Software.pdf From Dennis Brown, Equipment Leasing Association Equipment Leasing and Financial Foundation Tanks for the nice comments on the Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation. Since I became Executive Director, two years ago (whew does time fly!), we have been working hard to produce good, solid information and research on the industry. We appreciate your help in spreading the word of the resources available through the Foundation. Please let me know if I can provide your any information in the future. And, have a very Happy 2002! Lisa A. Levine Executive Director Equipment Leasing and Finance Foundation 4301 N. Fairfax Drive, #550 Arlington, VA 22203 703-527-8655; FAX: 703-465-7488 http:// www.leasefoundation.org <http://www.leasefoundation.org> #### ################################# ################### Universal Express, Inc. Renames and Rebrands Several Subsidiaries Universal Express, Inc. (OTC BB: USXP) announced the rebranding and some organizational changes for selected subsidiaries. FedFinancial Corp., USXP's equipment leasing subsidiary, will now be renamed Universal Express Capital Corp. The present Postal Business Center (PBC Network) will become the strategic partnership division of the newly named Private Postal Network(TM). "I am especially pleased with the formal re-naming of our Private Postal Network because after a number of years of owning this tradename, we are finally confident to present this easily understood and valuable name to the public and to the trade. All members can now proudly be part of a private postal network without confusion or ambivalence", said Richard A. Altomare, President and CEO of USXP. In addition, a newly formed subsidiary is being added for future branding opportunities and future projects - Universal Express Logistics, Inc. This will become the division containing Virtual Bellhop(R), Luggage Express(TM) and WorldPost(TM) - all logistical operations. The creation of publicly recognizable brand names requires creativity, persistence and patience. Over the past 18 years Universal Express has undergone numerous changes to more clearly brand its name, its maturing services and its customer direction. Now Universal Express has its subsidiaries and divisions more aligned with each other's names and with the Parent Corporation. "The subsidiaries Universal Express Logistics(TM), Universal Express Capital(TM) and Private Postal Network more clearly explain their corporate identities and I believe will become easier branding vehicles", continued Mr. Altomare. With numerous services to offer and a young developing company to mature, USXP is preparing a foundation for the weight of services and opportunities that surely will follow. The constructing of a foundation for an institution that will move forward in this decade and beyond requires flexibility, vision and a persistent strength of character that USXP demonstrates. For a visual snapshot of USXP and its businesses, visit www.usxp.com. Obviously, the web site changes necessary to reflect our new subsidiary names will take at least 60 working days to clearly represent the new graphics and names. "I now believe each corporate name explains its services and more cohesively fits together with each other as a maturing corporate family", concluded Richard A. Altomare. Universal Express, Inc. (USXP) owns and operates several subsidiaries including Universal Express Capital, Universal Express Logistics, and the Private Postal Network (PPN). These subsidiaries provide the private postal industry and consumers with value-added services and products, logistical services, equipment leasing, and cost-effective delivery of goods worldwide. More information and web site locations is available at: www.usxp.com Sites of Reference: ( courtesy of ELAonline.com ) ### ################################## ########################### Thursday, 1pm, LIVE www.leasingnews.org/newsmaker.htm Holiday
Internet Shopping Traffic Up 50% by
Beth Cox eCommerce News If
traffic were sales, e-commerce merchants had plenty of reasons
to smile this holiday season as one measurement firm reported
today that the number of visitors to shopping sites was up 50
percent from 2000 and 95 percent from 1999. New
York City-based Jupiter Media Metrix (NASDAQ:JMXI)
said that on average, 51.3 million unique visitors went to e-commerce
sites each week during the 2001 holiday-shopping season (defined
as the week ending Nov. 25 through the week ending Dec. 23). "...we're
left with one inescapable truth -- the Internet has become an
integral part of holiday shopping," said Charles Buchwalter,
vice president of media research at Jupiter Media Metrix. "Unlike
2000, when online shopping started strong but then fell off, online
shopping this year started strong and ended even stronger,"
he said. Meanwhile,
the eSpending report, released today by Goldman Sachs, Harris
Interactive and Nielsen//NetRatings, shows that $13.8 billion
was spent online during the 2001 holiday season (not counting
travel) for a 15 percent year-over-year increase. At the peak
of the season, the first week of December, one in five Internet
users, made a purchase online, that study said. And
according to BizRate.com, the comparison shopping site and a provider
of e-commerce research, fourth quarter online sales increased
by 35 percent to $12.4 billion. Regardless
of whose e-commerce statistics you take to heart, analysts at
Goldman Sachs are cautioning that online holiday sales were in
line with forecasts - up about 30 percent year over year - and
they are warning investors not to believe hype from privately
held companies boasting about dramatic sales gains of 70 to 80
percent. In
an advisory to clients, GS said that its estimate of online sales
over the 11 weeks ending Dec. 28 showed an increase of about 30
percent year over year to $16.3 billion, "in line with our
full year 2001 estimated increase of 20 percent to 25 percent."
That
said, GS still expect sales growth deceleration from lack of channel
shift, "but importantly satisfaction was up significantly
versus a year ago," something that the investment research
firm sees as "positive for continued adoption and potentially
'crossing the chasm' to reach mass market by '03." As
for the online merchants, 2001 may have been the year of the traditional
retailer, according to Jupiter Media Metrix. "We've
been waiting for the inevitable dominance of the traditional retailers
over their pureplay counterparts, and it appears that 2001 may
have been the year when it finally happened," said Ken Cassar,
senior Jupiter Research analyst. "With
a few exceptions such as Amazon, the dominant retailers that sell
merchandise directly from their sites tend to be affiliated with
brick-and-mortar stores and catalogs. In fact, traffic to the
seven traditional retailers among the top 15 shopping sites for
the entire 2001 shopping season increased 73 percent versus last
year." The
top three traditional retailers according to their average daily
unique visitors each week over the 2001 holiday-shopping season
were: Columbia House Sites with 598,000 average daily unique visitors;
Toysrus with 515,000; and Barnesandnoble.com with 447,000. eBay (NASDAQ:EBAY) leads the pack overall however, with a 2001 shopping season average daily visitor count of 4.51 million, followed by Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) with 2.5 million. Rounding out the top five were MyPoints.com with 2 million daily visitors, BizRate.com with 683,000 and eBay's Half.com with 660,000. Women Outshop Men During Holiday On Line by Dina ElBoghdady BizReport Women outshopped men on the Internet during the holidays for the first time ever, infiltrating a retail realm once dominated by young, wealthy white males, according to a national survey released yesterday by a nonprofit research group. Of the 29 million Internet users who bought gifts online between Thanksgiving and Christmas, about 58 percent were women, up from 50 percent last year, the Pew Internet & American Life Project found after polling more than 2,000 adults with Internet access. The research group's findings suggest women have crossed a major threshold in cyberspace, where the gender mix is becoming more consistent with the traditional retail world. "It's a vote of confidence for the online environment," said Lee Rainie, the group's director. "It means women think of the Internet in a much more serious way." Young, white, educated men are classic early adopters of any technology, and they dominated online shopping in its infancy. As the Internet grew in popularity, though, female shoppers prevailed, analysts said. Dan Hess, a vice president of ComScore Networks Inc., which tracks online retail sales, said retailers need to continue making the Internet convenient to keep momentum going. "They should continue blurring the lines between online and off-line shopping," Hess said. "It should not be something that is only comfortable for tech-savvy people of specific gender." To that end, many retailers now allow shoppers who buy merchandise online to return their purchases to stores, an uncommon policy only two years ago. Some, including J.C. Penney Co., also made it easier for shoppers to buy catalogue merchandise online. "They don't force you to go through the whole shopping process start to finish just because you're switching from the catalogue to the Internet," Hess said. Still, with all its ease and convenience, it is mostly more affluent women who shop the Web. About 39 percent of households earning $75,000 or more a year bought gifts online this season, compared with about 15 percent of those earning less than $30,000, the survey found. Consumers also spent more money online, about $392 per person, compared with about $330 last year. But that doesn't mean they stayed away from the malls. Despite speculation that fear of terrorist attacks might prompt Americans to avoid stores, only about 19 percent of shoppers restricted themselves to online purchases, while 48 percent said they shopped both online and in stores. A huge advantage to Internet shopping, they said, was the efficiency. About 84 percent of online shoppers believed they saved time, an especially critical factor for women with children. www.leasingnews.org
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