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| May
24, 2000
According to the attendee sheet there were 126 people there (not including spouses & families). Many of the educational meetings were sparsely attended as people wanted "beach" time. The location & hotel (Loews) was beautiful. Located in the famed Miami art deco district. The group consisted of about equal amounts of lessors/brokers,service companies, attorneys and funding sources. Several companies had several representatives. While the meetings were light in attendance it did provide the opportunity for greater discussion among the group. Key Items: "The Funding Life Cycle of a Leasing Company" - very well attended. The meeting was high lighted by the discussion of all the recent closings which have left a "black-eye" on the industry. The names are all known such as Bankvest, T&W, USA Capital, etc., etc.,etc....... The secularization market is "all but dead." A year ago these types of meetings were well attended by investment bankers and other Wall Street types. They are now no where to be found! If you have a portfolio of bank line for sale you better do it now, even then you may be too late as rates continue to rise. There are still buyers but far less of them and they are getting "picky". Funding sources will continue to raise rates, limit points and eliminate re-brokered business. Many of the funding sources I spoke with indicated that "its about time we get ours". They are tired of running on low margins, paying too many points, taking all the risk and losses. Can you blame them? So me funders feel that the broker community has been beating them up for too long now. The straight facts: Network Capital Alliance a division of Sovereign Bank (not Sovran as misprinted in conference information) is purchasing New England Capital Corp. This is confirmed from both companies. The closing is expected to be in June. The operation of New England Capital, with the name change, will remain the same as it was before, serving the broker community on the $500k+ deals for strong credits. There were a few service booths, UCC filings firms, out sourcing, software and the .com's. It did not seem they were too busy and some simply left information to be picked up about their product with some closing early. I really felt for the people putting on the last 2 educational sessions (Saturday 2-3:30). Very, very light attendance. They would have been better served if they have them poolside. Many groups sponsored wonderful parties, lunches and get togethers. As previously noted TotalFunding.com had a great cigar, dessert & drink reception Friday night. A nice luncheon put on by Network Capital Alliance/Soverign Bank (though you had to sit at a certain table to get in on specific discussions on Current litigation or Article 9 or vendor programs or other issues) I would have liked to had the ability to hear about all of them. Then the final party sponsored by Lease Enforcement Attorney Network (LEAN) with wonderful food, hand rolled cigars, music & dancing. Of course, as is usually the case, the music was too loud to hold a decent conversation. There were many other wonderfully sponsored events and I do not mean to leave anyone out. Everyone I met was very friendly, open and eager to be of service. A very nice bunch of people! So much for keeping it brief. In closing, I found it very useful for my business needs. I solidified current relationships, met with many old friends in the business and hopefully come back with some prospects. I can understand the low attendance with so many conferences so close together many people cannot afford the time or money to attend all of them, but anyone in this business should attend at least one or two a year, especially with the current changes in the industry. I do not mean just EAEL but any of the associations. They all have their place in the industry and I cannot honestly say one is necessarily better than another. Sincerely,
Kit-- I was very sorry to hear the news ( about New England Capital.) The company has been a good funding source for middle market deals for about 17 years. Not many funding sources have stayed in the business for that length of time. So they had a great run and the broker community benefited from it. Hopefully it was just the portfolio and employees will go to the new buyers. I am told they will find out next week. We're in the middle of difficult times for funding sources, but I learned long ago that every time a lessor or funder crashes and burns, several new ones arise from the ashes. There will always be new players, on-line or off. Keep up the very welcome flow of information. We need it now, more than ever before.
Bob Teichman |
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