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October 26, 2001
Headlines--- Conference in San Antonio, Texas Internet Sales Tax Tech companies had bad earnings quarter National Association of Leasing Brokers “Help Desk” eLNA Expands Into International Equipment Leasing Market Classifed Ad---Up-Date Leasing News “The List” Up-Date Comdisco—Up-Date New Study Reports on Ways Lessors Are Making Front Offices More Efficient Monday---San Antonio United Association of Equipment Leasing Report www.nytimes.com/portraits ### denotes press release
United Association of Equipment Leasing Association—San Antonio, Texas The conference was billed at 150 attendees and 150 exhibitors. The good news: Most of the exhibitors are funders, super brokers, and their staff, so the number is higher for attendees. While many of us gauge these events by “body count,” the true spirit is the value retained by those attending. And here there are many “first timers” and “new members.” A UAEL spokesman said there were 102 new members so far this year, perhaps due to Bill Grohe’s work in membership. It was quite unique to see him here with his name tag and below, both “staff” and “past president.” He is both. Thursday was the get acquainted night, so a full report will be on Monday. Leasing News also plans a report on the Equipment Leasing Association Conference for our “reporter”on the scene. Here in San Antonio,Hyatt Regency says Friday the occupancy is 59%. The bellmen tell otherwise, 30% to 40% at best. The only reason the bellman who took me to the room was employed, he has been here sixteen years. He says it has been pretty bad. Two weekends ago the Hyatt Downtown Los Angeles had a 19% occupancy for the weekend, when we stayed there. In the funding sources to see, American Express Business Finance has a full unit here. They had announced they were out of the “broker business”, with all leases to fund by December 31, 2001. Perhaps they are after “portfolio business,” or maybe this was booked in advance. The weather is great: 85 degrees. Perhaps someone will tell me something when I make an appointment to see them. News on Monday. _______________________________________________________________ Internet Sales –No Tax I received several telephone calls regarding the sales/use tax issue in California. Many Companies out of state do not bill use for sales/use tax, and do not want to. They will not include in their invoice. They state they do not collect sales/use tax. In these instances we pay the State Board of Equalization directly. Many large internet companies do not bill sales tax in California, and other states, and leasing companies pay the sales/use tax direct to the state. While a use tax may be required, many out of state companies believe since they do not have a location in the state, Nexus, they are not responsible for the sales tax. Whether this is against the law or not, this is the common practice that we have seen for many years, on all sizes of leases, from $5,000 to $125,000. Tech companies had bad earnings quarter BY DAVID A. SYLVESTER San Jose Mercury News As Silicon Valley suffers from the worst sales drop ever for personal computers and semiconductors, a rash of technology companies this month are reporting plummeting revenue, dismal earnings or even serious losses . And with the attack of Sept. 11 damaging the already slowing U.S. economy, experts now think the valley's economic recovery -- once hoped to begin this fall -- won't start until the second half of next year. ``Business is worse than expected, so the recovery has been pushed out a couple of quarters,'' says Sung Won Sohn, chief economist for Wells Fargo & Co. Corporate profits -- a key driver of the valley's economy -- peaked during the spring of 2000 and have tumbled ever since. As the corporate bottom lines shrank, companies began laying off employees and cutting back on spending, further weakening the economy. ``A lot of layoffs are based on poor earnings,'' said Sohn. The results from 181 Silicon Valley companies that have reported third quarter earnings are abysmal compared to the same quarter a year ago: Sales have declined by 22 percent and last year's profits of $3.4 billion have turned into a collective loss of $9.3 billion. Stated another way, these 181 companies were earning 8 cents on every $1 of sales of their products last fall. During this year's quarter, they lost 28 cents on every $1 they sell. (This includes an assortment of one-time charges, write-offs and other items.) On Tuesday, tech companies that announced losses ran the gamut: disk-drive maker Maxtor, chipmaker LSI Logic, online retailer Amazon.com, personal computer maker Compaq Computer, photocopying giant Xerox, telecommunications giant Lucent Technologies. Last week, Sun Microsystems reported a loss while Intel, Microsoft and Apple Computer saw profits fall sharply. EBay was one of the few companies to announce strong profits in the past two weeks. Its profits rose 24 percent as more cost-conscious shoppers turned to the online auction company to find the lowest prices. Nationally, profits for technology companies on Standard & Poor's 500 are expected to fall 58 percent in the final three months of this year compared to a year ago, according to the research firm of Thomson Financial/First Call. Tech profits also are expected to fall sharply during the first quarter of 2002 before turning around by the end of the year. The slump has hammered Santa Clara county employment. Since last December, the county has lost about 45,000 jobs, or about 2.4 percent. Of these, about 17,200 were lost in manufacturing and 27,800 in services, according to the state Employment Development Department. This is the worst job loss since early 1992 when the valley was mired in a five-year slump. Then, jobs peaked at about 815,000 at the end of 1989 and didn't break that level and start growing until early 1995. The worst-hit industries are the semiconductor and personal computer makers. The current prediction is that the worldwide semiconductor industry will shrink 30 percent this year, the biggest decline ever for the industry and twice as bad a drop as forecast last June. The Semiconductor Industry Association will reveal its new forecast on Nov. 7. Chip companies had hoped a wider range of customers would buffer them from this kind of steep decline, but the fallout of the dot-com collapse was greater than expected. ``It all fell apart,'' said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst for Insight 64, a research firm tracking chips used in computers. The computer world also is struggling. Worldwide personal computers shipments are expected to drop 6 percent this year, says Charles Smulders, a vice president of research firm Gartner Dataquest. That's far worse than the 2 percent decline in 1985 during another glutted marketplace. He estimates PC shipments declined about 12 percent in the third quarter and should decline by the same in the fourth quarter. And next year is unlikely to show any more than 3 percent growth. ``The key factor is what happens in the U.S. economy,'' Smulders said. ``We believe we won't see signs of a return to growth until confidence improves.'' Most economists are now looking for a recovery next year, although tech companies are expected to take longer to rebound. David Wyss, chief economist for Standard & Poor's, has estimated the worst of the current recession will hit during the last three months of this year, with a mild improvement in the first quarter of next year. Overall, stock market analysts haven't fully adjusted their estimates for corporate profits to reflect the deeper plunge that has developed, Wyss said. ``I think people are too optimistic for next year,'' he said. Contact David A. Sylvester at dsylvester@sjmercury.com or (408) 920-5019. ________________________________________________________________ One Comdisco Hearing Postponed, One Accelerated; H-P Raises Bid The U.S. Bankruptcy Court has postponed until November 7, 2001 a hearing to consider approving the sale of Comdisco, Inc.'s availability solutions business. In addition, SunGard Data Systems, Inc. announced that all parties have agreed to an accelerated scheduled for resolution of the U.S. Justice Department's case against SunGard's proposed acquisition of Comdisco's availability solutions business: the deadline for resolving the case is November 15, 2001. Separately, Hewlett-Packard announced that it has raised its bid for Comdisco's availability solutions business from $610 million to $750 million. www.banktruptcydata.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NAELB “Help Desk”
The National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers (NAELB )has established
a “Help Desk” for its members.. Michael Meacher, President, announces
that Dee Benedictis, who currently sits on the NAELB will man the
Help Desk. Dee DiBenedictis has over 15 years experience in the
industry working for funding sources such as Denrich Leasing and
Unicyn Funding Group, in capacities ranging from credit and documentation
through collections and marketing “ Dee should be able to answer just about any question
relating to the industry, he said. “ With the fifth anniversary
of her own company SunStar Equipment Leasing coming up in a few
months, she is well aware of the obstacles and opportunities we
all face as brokers in the leasing industry today.” Inquiries regarding general association information, such as membership
info and renewals, conference and meeting schedules, etc. should
be directed to the main NAELB office at 800-996-2352. The Help Desk
should be called only for questions and issues that need to be addressed
to a peer in the industry. A special phone number for the Help Desk has been established. The phone
will be answered on Tuesdays and Thursdays from noon to 4:00 pm.
Voice mail messages can be left at anytime The New York Times has been running “portraits, “ biographical sketches of the people who died at Ground Zero. They are not just numbers. If you have doubts about our efforts to end terrorists and the invasion of Afghanstan, please go to: ___________________________________________________________________ Third Quarter Loss $1.22 billion SAN
JOSE – JDS Uniphase Corp.'s first-quarter loss grew 20 percent as
the optical networking equipment maker continued to struggle through
the economic slowdown. For the period ended Sept. 29, JDS Uniphase lost $1.22 billion, or 93 cents a share, compared a loss of $1.02 billion, or $1.07 a share in the year-ago period. First-quarter
revenue was off 58 percent to $328.6 million over last year's $786.5
million. Analysts were expecting sales of $322.4 million. In
September, the company said sales for the period would be about $325
million, down from $357 million then expected by analysts. The
company, based in San Jose and Ottawa, was particularly hit hard by
the economic downturn as demand for communications equipment fell
through the floor just as it was expanding its business through acquisitions.
In
the past fiscal year, which ended June 30, JDS Uniphase lost more
than $55 billion, mostly the result of write-downs related to companies
it acquired during the telecom boom. It's believed to be the largest
annual loss ever in U.S. corporate history. The
company also sliced its work force to about 13,000, down from 29,000
earlier this year. And it has shed both real estate and duplicate
operations from several mergers. ( And you think we have it tough in the leasing business???!!!) ##### ################## ##################### eLNA Expands Into International Equipment Leasing Market Newly Launched "eNetwork" Now Includes Over 3,200 Industry Participants ----------------------------------------------------------------------- - The eLessors Networking Association (eLNA) today announced it is now attracting international membership from its Web site at http://www.elessors.com. With the registration this week of a European leasing company, the first industry association to focus exclusively on networking technology resources with the equipment leasing community can now claim international representation. A spokesperson for eLNA reported, "eLNA was exclusively launched using the Internet and our high profile networking events as primary tools of communication with prospective members. It is not surprising that within the first forty-five days, we have established the "eNetwork", an electronic networking platform that includes 3,200 participants, and registered our first international member." For additional information, please visit http://www.elessors.com. About The eLessors Networking Association Traditional industry associations have been slow to embrace the evolving new eLeasing industry. By merging the technology and financial service sectors, eLNA represents an international community of technology and online equipment leasing professionals…the new "eLeasing industry". ##### ############################# New Study Reports on Ways Lessors Are Making Front Offices More Efficient Chicago, Ill., -Northern Consulting LLC has conducted extensive research during the past two months to determine the level of innovation and types of technologies being used by equipment lessors to make front-office operations more efficient. The study, sponsored by WiredCapital, will be the source of a presentation planned for Monday, Oct. 29 and Tuesday, Oct. 30 at 2 p.m. at the Equipment Leasing Association's annual convention in Boca Raton, Fla. Based on interviews with more than 100 leasing executives, the Leasing Front Office Research Survey covers: --the top issues facing the leasing industry in originating new leases --current best practices for the front office; --how leasing companies are identifying more sales opportunities; and - how technology is deployed and with what success. "We think this research is critical to helping companies generate more revenue in this challenging economy," says WiredCapital CEO Kevin Riegelsberger. "The results indicate how important it is for leasing companies to improve the systems and processes that support sales, credit and documentation. The survey will help us at WiredCapital to further develop our WiredLeasing software suite to better address the most critical challenges facing the leasing front office." "We were selected to do this research because we are exclusively focused on the equipment leasing industry, yet we have an agnostic perspective on the software available to lessors," says Cameron Krueger, managing director of Northern Consulting. Everyone who attends the session, presented by Krueger, will receive a free copy of the study. ### ###### ######################## About Northern Consulting Northern Consulting, based in Chicago, Ill., has been providing systems, operations and financial consulting exclusively to the $450 billion global equipment leasing and finance industry since 1998. Customers include Boeing Capital, Cisco Systems Capital and dozens of small and mid-size lessors. For more information, visit www.northernconsulting.com. About WiredCapital WiredCapital, based in Irvine, Calif., transforms inefficient paper-based leasing operations into streamlined, competitive enterprises and empowers front office personnel to serve customers and close business more effectively. WiredCapital develops enterprise software solutions that enable front office salespeople, credit analysts and contracts managers to identify new revenue opportunities and to quickly convert them into sales through rapid origination of new business transactions. WiredLeasing, WiredCapital's flagship software suite, is an innovative solution that automates the equipment lease origination process from sales to booking and provides a single access point for the information the front office needs to get a complete view of the customer relationship. _________________________________________________________________ Classified Ads---Recruiters, too I would like to take a moment to thank you for offering the wonderful service of posting a brief ad in Leasing News. This mechanism provides a wonderful opportunity to reach members of the leasing community. Although a new recipient of your daily newsletter, I am very grateful for the valuable information you and your readers provide. The ad provided an introduction to colleagues I had not previously had occasion to speak with. It's a wonderful service.
Best regards, Sharon T. Silva stsilva@msn.com 770.399.6043 404.680.3739
(mobile) http://65.209.205.32/LeasingNews/JobPosting.htm ( The purpose is to help people find work, and also companies find people. We do not do this for financial renumeration, advertising, or banners. We hope the “outsourcing” section will help the smaller companies who cannot afford advertising, mail campaigns, but have services that can be of benefit to our readers. editor. ) Here are people looking for work in the leasing industry. Credit: Columbia, SC Senior Commercial Credit Underwriter/ 13 years leasing experience/small ticket environment. Loan authority to $100k. Proficient in spreadsheet analysis. Thoroughly knowledgeable all financial statements,tax returns. Email:lrport2001@yahoo.com Legal: Arlington Heights, IL I am looking for a position as an attorney within the leasing industry which will utilize my 10 years'legal and operational skills and experience.Email:robertecondon@yahoo.com Operations: Austin, TX 5 years experience in leasing including processing credits, reviewing and funding transactions and performing quality control. Looking for a new challenge and opportunity. Email:neseafort@aol.com Operations: San Diego, CA I have nearly 5 years experience in the app-only arena; from generating credit applications, to credit, processing & documentation, through to final funding. Looking for a growth opportunity with a stable organization in a credit/operations role.Email:jmccorman@hotmail.com Sales: Austin, TX Moving to the area oct. 16th. Looking for a company that needs an outgoing salespro; good base of developed relationships with vendors and lessees. Email:grm2001usa@yahoo.com Sales: Atlanta, GA Add pizzazz to your team! Highly motivated sales exec with strong relationship management and communication skills offers record of achievement and desire to succeed. Email:stsilva@msn.com Sales: Silicon Valley, CA VP level Business Development and Sales Manager, well connected in Silicon Valley. Experienced in major vendor programs on a global basis.Email: Tadadzn@ix.netcom.com
Sales: New York City, NY Equipment & computer leasing marketing expert/ knowledge of all leasing structures/ documentation; seeks position where my high productivity & knowledge will be recognized financially. Email:rcs60@worldnet.att.net Help Wanted Marketing: Oakland, CA Consultant for possible 3-12 month asignment in San Francisco Bay area on vehicle leasing business development and expansion contract. NVLE certification and significant experience ideal. Email:MPeter@globalbusdev.com Operations: New York (Manhattan), NY Assist Operations VP Who is also Chief Credit Officer in all general duties. We are prime funding source, generating our own business and running own portfolio. Email:iraymond@easternfunding.com Sales: Tustin, CA Sales person for equipment financing company. Company has 10 years in business with a good reputation. Commission split 50% - 60%. Office supplies: Desk, Phone, Back up staff and telemarketer to assist in sales. Email:bgriffith@socalleasing.com Sales: San Francisco, CA We are looking for an experienced small ticket lease processor who can work in a fun downtown SF office. Competitive package. resume/salary require to tom@elease.com Sales: Carlsbad, CA ILS has immediate openings for Vendor salespeople. With diverse funding relationships/ the latest in lease automation technology, ILS offers seasoned salespeople unlimited commission potential in a stable environment. Email: andrew@ilslease.com Sales: Deerfield, IL Exp. sales pro for 10 yrs,prvtly held, ind. leasing co. Originate,fund,service transactions internally. Significant industry niche penetration/remarkable
record of repeat business. Transactions
$10,000 - $10,000,000. ave. $150,000. Email:kbecker@northamericanfundingcorp.com Sales:
Phoenix, AZ For Phoenix or branch location..20 year old company..commission 50+/draw.Office supplied or costs if branch operation. Email:john@odysseyequipfinance.com Sales: Scottsdale or Los Angeles Sales, 60% Commission, INC Magazine ranked #1, minimum 2 yrs experience, vendors & customer base required. Telemarketing assistant & marketing campaign provided. AZ, LA or Home office. Email:hr@alliancecap.com Sales: Boca Raton, FL independent sales person wanted for a firm in business 21+. commission split 50%-50% flexible with your needs, experience always a plus.Email:lease10@bellsouth.net Sales: Cleveland, OH Independent 13 year old small ticket & middle market lessor looking for additional sales reps w. some exper. in leasing. Draw/commission from 50% to 60% commission. Email:Spencer@AFNLeasing.com Sales: Phoenix, AZ 25 year old small ticket independent seeks experienced sales reps. Draw, office expenses etc plus high commission percentage. Visit our website - www.firstfederalfinancial.com Email:dougb@firstfederalfinancial.com Sales: LA., East Coast,
Or Work from Your Home, Minimum 2 yrs experience, vendor base is a plus. Telemarketing Support Provided. Email:jobs@taycor.com Sales: Aurora, CO Seeking sales people for vendor/end user market. Established for 12 years in Denver. Call Matt Dalton @ LeaseLine, Inc., 800-333-2165 or Email: leaseline@dim.com OutSourching Asset Management: Tampa/St Pete, FL Contact Dick Mitchell @ Randolph Lynn Associates for prompt professional pre-funding equipment inspections, collateral "visits", and related lessee/vendor contacts. (Florida locations) 727-302-9144 Email:dmrla@gte.net Collector: Near Boston, MA My name is John Kenny. I have 14 years experience in leasing collections. I currently offer outsourced services to clients nationwide on a contractual, contingency basis.Email:ReceivablesMgmt@prodigy.net Consultant: Sausalito, CA Lease trainer and consultant. 38 years in equipment leasing. Expert in transaction analysis, financial statement analysis, credit, packaging, structuring. Presents highly popular classes and workshops. Email:BoTei@aol.com Software: Edmonds, WA Preferred Broker Solutions offers software support (also custom templates & reports) for the System 1 and CapitalStream Advantage products. Ask about our Web Application interface. Email:support@pbs4u.com The Full List, both Chronological and Alphabetical is available on line at: http://www.leasingnews.org/list.htm 121 changes Here are the most current:
Advanta Leasing (10/2001 ) Advanta Leasing Division Net Loss $44 Million “These included a $44 million charge associated with discontinued operations, principally reflecting a revision to the valuation of leasing assets and a decrease in the estimated pretax operating results over the remaining life of the lease portfolio. The leasing revision results primarily from the impact of a former leasing vendor's bankruptcy. The Company also recorded asset valuation charges of $10 million on its venture capital portfolio due to the continued weakness in the current market for venture capital investments. As a result of these charges, the Company reported a net loss for the quarter of $41.7 million or $1.59 per share for Class A and Class B shares combined on a diluted basis.” (7/2001) Advanta Corp: 2nd quarter shows $4 million loss in leasing biz (1/2001 Advanta ceases leasing business announcement 1/2001 Chris Ciarrocchi says "goodbye" Mortgage Division sold, re- affirms Leasing Division still for sale, former prez now at eOriginals,others let go like Kaye Lee.) (9/2000) for sale. Textron Financial ( 10/2001 ) Fitch lowers rating from stable to negative
Textron Finance Division Down $6 million
Finance segment revenues decreased $6 million due to a lower average yield reflecting a
lower interest rate environment.
Interest margin increased, reflecting higher fee income and higher average receivables. The higher interest
margin more than offset the
decrease in revenues. However,
profit decreased $1 million as higher
expenses related to new initiatives and a higher provision for loan
losses offset the benefit of higher interest margin full press release: www.textron.com/newsroom/stories_04a.html (9/2001) Manufacturing & Machine Tool Division is to close. It appears Textron did not get what they were looking for in this division. With FTC it's all ROE. I understand that Fred Hockman (President of the Machine Tool Division) is looking to find another leasing company to sell his package to (8/2001) First Corp,Portland, OR, announces Jim Merrilees will join on Sept. 4 as executive vice-president www.firstcorp.com, has left Textron. (7/2001) small ticket equipment financing functions will be moved to its Small Business Direct group that was acquired in early June and is based in Little Rock, Arkansas. As a result, Textron Financial will eliminate its Lake Oswego, OR and Providence, RI functions that previously handled small ticket equipment financing as support for these programs are migrated to the Small Business Direct operation over the next 30-60 days. The unofficial target date is August 1, 2001. Insider reports: “"Jim Merrilees of Colonial Pacific, Grayrock, Nations Credit fame, Randy Ernst, Denise Mann, and company have all departed TFC. Jim is on the payroll until the end of the year as he has a contract but I don't think he is working here anymore." ( 7/2001) reported to end broker business on August 1,2001 (5/2001) Textron announces a new division to serve the capital requirements of independent, middle-market lenders. (4/2001) complaints Textron doing repeat business with leases submitted to Nations, but now being serviced by Textron (common in such situations.editor) (4/2001) complaints from brokers regarding getting information for NationsCredit and GrayRock Capital on FMV, payoffs, residuals from Textron who is servicing the portfolio (1/29/99) sold to Textron *** Textron does "broker business." ( formerly on list as Nations Credit, Business Leasing Group ) Lessors.com
(10/2001) Lessors.com closes
to become eLessors Networking Association Web site (http://www.elessors.com) URL up for sale. Perhaps the best leasing portal to date. SDI Capital,So.CA (10/2001 ) SDI Capital to move from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7, reportedly Scott Daniels part of Compass One Leasing, Southern California (7/2001) files BK 11, many investors caught holding the bag, reportedly the Daniels moving to Canada to open another business. Compass One decision Analysis Group incorporated 6/7/2001. ( 6/2001) reportedly gong to file BK, investors to lose $20 M (6/2001) let’s employees go, owing payroll, 401k, medical/health (5/2001) reported has assets up for sale ( 5/2000 closed to broker programs ) GE Capital (10/2001) Records 19% Revenue Drop in QIII FNF Capital10/2001 Closes Down Small Ticket Operation David Marks e-mail: LUV2SELLL@aol.com, home phone is (303) 639-940 CIT (10/2001 ) Tyco Makes it Official: CIT Tyco Capital (8/2001) Many opt to move to Tempe, AZ, stay with CIT, become bold, challenge GE and others in the marketplace, morale up, company on the move. ( 5/2001) CIT Shareholders Approve Proposed Tyco-CIT Acquisition (3/2001) Tyco International Ltd. makes offer for about $9.2 billion in cash and stock in a deal that would allow the manufacturer to finance purchases of its wide array of products. Bermuda Hq., N.H. operation office. ( 2/2001) Closing Atlanta office and others, "freeze" on new broker business from this office ( 5/2001) Bruce Nelson, Tempe, Arizona seeking broker business. “We are an asset based lender and provide equipment financing in the following industries: Construction, Transportation, Logging, Material Handling, Corporate Aircraft, Mining, Energy, & Marine.” American Express/ SierraCities 09/2001 |