Asset finance new business grows by 5% in September

New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew by 5% in September, compared with the same month in 2018.  In Q3 2019 as a whole, new business was also 5% higher than in the same quarter in 2018.

New finance for plant and machinery and business cars grew in September by 15% and 4% respectively, compared with the same month in the previous year.  Over the same period, new finance for commercial vehicles held steady.

Commenting on the figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, Head of Research and Chief Economist at the FLA, said:

“In September, the asset finance industry reported its strongest growth in new finance for plant and machinery since January 2019 as businesses stockpiled ahead of another Brexit deadline.

“The industry has seen total new business grow in all but one month so far in 2019, with the latest annual new business total reaching a record level of £34.5 billion.”

Sep 2019

% change on prev. year

3 months to Sep

2019

% change on prev. year

12 months to Sep

2019

% change on prev. year

Total FLA asset finance (£m)

2,907

+5

8,454

+5

34,474

+7

Total excluding high value (£m)

2,688

+5

7,862

+5

31,959

+5

 

Data Extracts:

 

By asset:

Plant and machinery finance (£m)

623

+15

1,850

+9

7,445

+12

Commercial vehicle finance (£m)

730

0

2,148

+8

9,098

+14

IT equipment finance (£m)

309

-10

757

-8

2,663

-6

Business equipment finance (£m)

180

-1

584

-4

2,597

+5

Car finance (£m)

712

+4

2,160

+4

8,965

0

Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance (£m)

20

+78

87

+71

541

+126

 

By channel:

Direct finance (£m)

1,217

-1

3,859

+4

16,062

+6

Broker-introduced finance (£m)

541

+4

1,623

+5

6,616

+12

Sales finance (£m)

930

+15

2,380

+6

9,281

+1

 

By product:

Finance leasing (£m)

405

-8

1,064

+2

4,256

+7

Operating leasing (£m)

501

+1

1,473

0

6,103

-1

Lease/Hire purchase (£m)

1,566

+4

4,718

+8

19,497

+10

Other finance (£m)

280

+20

877

+5

3,313

+8

Asset finance market grows by 8% in July

New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) overall grew in July by 8% compared with the same month last year. New business for deals of up to £20 million increased by 7% over the same period.

The plant and machinery finance, and commercial vehicle finance sectors reported new business up in July by 12% and 13% respectively, compared with the same month in 2018, while the car finance sector saw growth of 6%.

Commenting on the figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, Head of Research and Chief Economist at the FLA, said:

“The asset finance market made a solid start to the third quarter of 2019.  Despite subdued levels of business investment, the industry has seen new business grow by 7% in the twelve months to July.

 “The commercial vehicle finance and construction equipment finance sectors have returned strong performances in 2019 so far, with new business up in the first seven months of 2019 by 17% and 22% respectively.”

 Jul 2019% change on prev. year3 months to Jul2019% change on prev. year12 months to Jul2019% change on prev. year
Total FLA asset finance (£m)3,075+89,244+534,305+7
Total excluding high value (£m)2,833+78,429+331,792+5
       
Data Extracts:By asset:      
Plant and machinery finance (£m)639+121,897+77,337+12
Commercial vehicle finance (£m)751+132,349+109,046+14
IT equipment finance (£m)2760714-132,725+2
Business equipment finance (£m)195-11622-32,624+5
Car finance (£m)876+62,544+28,938-2
Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance (£m)47+59218+176523+114
By channel:      
Direct finance (£m)1,468+114,285+516,090+6
Broker-introduced finance (£m)564+41,709+86,545+13
Sales finance (£m)800+22,435-39,158-2
By product:      
Finance leasing (£m)351+151,013+24,308+12
Operating leasing (£m)536-11,56106,107-4
Lease/Hire purchase (£m)1,777+155,289+719,363+10
Other finance (£m)313-14945-33,222+5

Asset finance market grows by 11% in March

New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew by 11% in March, compared with the same month last year, and also by 11% in Q1 2019 overall.

New finance for plant and machinery grew in March by 11% compared with the same month in 2018. Over the same period, the commercial vehicle finance and IT equipment finance sectors reported growth of 17% and 5% respectively.

Commenting on the figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, Head of Research and Chief Economist at the FLA, said:

“The asset finance market reported a record level of monthly new business in March and the strongest quarterly growth in Q1 2019 since Q3 2016.

“Asset finance continued to support key sectors of the economy in the first quarter as new finance for manufacturing and construction equipment increased by 25% and 26% respectively, compared with Q1 2018.”

Mar 2019

% change on prev. year

3 months to Mar

2019

% change on prev. year

12 months to Mar

2019

% change on prev. year

Total FLA asset finance (£m)

3,679

+11

8,490

+11

33,447

+7

Total excluding high value (£m)

3,403

+7

7,861

+9

31,069

+5

 

Data Extracts:

 

By asset:

Plant and machinery finance (£m)

728

+11

1,861

+12

7,055

+8

Commercial vehicle finance (£m)

994

+17

2,231

+23

8,402

+14

IT equipment finance (£m)

211

+5

612

+18

2,808

+19

Business equipment finance (£m)

252

-1

623

+2

2,670

+5

Car finance (£m)

993

-3

2,209

+2

8,940

-3

Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance (£m)

111

+238

147

+122

392

-12

 

By channel:

Direct finance (£m)

1,711

+5

3,926

+7

15,492

+4

Broker-introduced finance (£m)

658

+19

1,642

+19

6,354

+16

Sales finance (£m)

1,033

+3

2,293

+5

9,223

+1

 

By product:

Finance leasing (£m)

429

+6

1,040

+14

4,220

+11

Operating leasing (£m)

645

-10

1,447

-6

5,894

-9

Lease/Hire purchase (£m)

2,006

+9

4,756

+15

18,769

+11

Other finance (£m)

439

+53

963

+24

3,240

+7

Carrick Asset Finance: Up and Running

With six months trading now under their belts there’s a distinctly positive ‘end of the beginning’ feeling in the air at Carrick Asset Finance. In this short piece, Carrick’s finance director Martin Stewart takes stock of the market and explains how this start-up operation is finding its feet:

We launched Carrick Asset Finance in October last year, confident in the notion we knew exactly what our key challenges would be. It was all going to be about price – right? Oh, and achieving differentiation in a busy marketplace and, not forgetting of course having to compete with the stretched credit terms currently on offer across the sector.

Well, while we have been touched to some extent by each of these issues, we’ve happily so far managed to navigate our way to a position ahead of even our most optimistic of forecasts. We’re hyper-aware there’s no room whatsoever for complacency but are quietly very pleased at the progress we’ve made since opening for business, and the great reception we’ve had from the market. Our early sense is of some good momentum building as our business matures and of developing a healthy pipeline of both hard and soft asset business as we move into the traditionally strong Spring trading period.

In fact, what we’ve discovered is that the main challenge in establishing the business has been one of communication. Despite only working with a relatively small panel of introducers, it’s been a big exercise to get our message across to the people that matter. Making sure decision makers and sales people across our broker base have a clear view of our risk appetite, our approach to pricing, and our general way of working is obviously pivotal. The UK asset finance intermediary space is thriving and given the scale and geographical reach of many of the firms we’ve developed partnerships with, that process of engagement and explaining our offering is an ongoing one, and central to our success.

Fortunately, our management team are quite well known in asset finance circles, and the introducers we’ve approached have all been very willing to talk and develop business relationships, often because they have had productive connections with us in the past. This has unquestionably been a real help in getting us up and running and has accelerated what could have otherwise been a more protracted process. We actually managed to complete the formal onboarding of more than half our introducer panel within a fortnight of our launch, meaning we were writing business very early on in that first month of trading, and that got us off to a very strong start.

The process of engaging with brokers and spreading the word goes on unabated though because we fully recognise we’ve no divine right to business. With brokers having a larger choice of lenders than ever before, particularly in the Tier 2 arena, the market is ultra-competitive and the need for both clarity and awareness around our offering, and for us to be as communicative and accessible as possible to our brokers are absolutely minimum requirements if we want to build on the early foothold we’ve gained. Luckily, so far, our brokers have been listening, with things like our documentation production service or our process of wherever possible agreeing higher value credit lines when reverting with a transactional approval, really seeming to have caught people’s attention and have helped us gain the early traction we have.

Looking forward, there’s no escaping the endless discussions and speculation about the UK’s political situation and the possible impacts this could have on the economy and capital investment. Like everyone else, we’ll just have to deal with matters as they unfold, however we do take comfort from the generally resilient nature of the ‘real’ economy and the subsectors of that which we typically fund.

Whether things improve, stay the same, or deteriorate in some way – time will tell, but as a new entrant to the market we’re very keen to keep growing. We’re confident that our combination of experienced management, high-quality introducer base, and the natural agility we have as new business will stand us in good stead. We take absolutely nothing for granted though and will keep working hard to push our message out there and continue developing a distinct and value-added offering for our introducers.

Martin Stewart

Finance Director

April 2019

Asset finance market grows by 7% in December

New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew in December by 7% compared with the same month in 2017, and by 5% in Q4 2018 as a whole.

The plant and machinery finance and commercial vehicle finance sectors reported new business up in December by 29% and 18% respectively, compared with 2017, while new finance for IT equipment was up by 16% over the same period.

Commenting on the figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, Head of Research and Chief Economist at the FLA, said:

“The asset finance market reported strong growth across many sectors in the final quarter of 2018 which contributed to a record level of new business in 2018 as a whole of almost £33 billion.  This represented the eighth consecutive year of growth.

“The temporary increase in the Annual Investment Allowance for plant and machinery from 1 January 2019 announced in the last Budget should support further growth in this sector over the next few months.”

 

Dec 2018

% change on prev. year

3 months to Dec

2018

% change on prev. year

12 months to Dec

2018

% change on prev. year

Total FLA asset finance (£m)

2,788

+7

8,236

+5

32,571

+3

Total excluding high value (£m)

2,501

+8

7,656

+4

30,472

+3

 

Data Extracts:

 By asset:

Plant and machinery finance (£m)

660

+29

1,786

+18

6,849

+5

Commercial vehicle finance (£m)

673

+18

2,218

+14

7,984

+7

IT equipment finance (£m)

342

+16

674

-9

2,714

+15

Business equipment finance (£m)

247

+11

735

+16

2,659

+4

Car finance (£m)

617

+3

2,040

-7

8,893

-5

Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance (£m)

30

-17

123

+105

312

-43

 By channel:

Direct finance (£m)

1,268

+13

3,833

+5

15,259

+2

Broker-introduced finance (£m)

502

+8

1,629

+12

6,090

+12

Sales finance (£m)

731

-1

2,195

-5

9,123

-1

 By product:

Finance leasing (£m)

381

-4

1,134

+11

4,094

+8

Operating leasing (£m)

511

0

1,531

-6

5,981

-11

Lease/Hire purchase (£m)

1,532

+28

4,658

+13

18,158

+8

Other finance (£m)

249

-3

637

-5

3,052

-3

WINTER CHARITY PLEDGE

At Carrick Asset Finance we recognise the importance of giving something back. While our business is young, we’re extremely pleased with how our first few months of trading have gone and are very grateful for your business support.

We therefore thought it would be a good idea to channel this gratitude into a charity pledge, through which we’d like a variety of charities and community groups to benefit.

For every new proposal we receive and pay out from our introducer network between 1st December 2018 and 31st January 2019, we’ll donate £50 to the charity or community group of their choice. For the introducer generating the highest total donation over the period, we’ll double the amount going to the beneficiary.

We’ve got off to a great start and think some charitable giving on behalf of our introducers is a nice thing to do, particularly at this time of year.

From all of us at Carrick Asset Finance we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Asset finance market reports new business up 9% in October

New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew by 9% in October, compared with the same month last year.

The plant and machinery finance and business equipment finance sectors reported new business  up by 16% and 29% respectively, compared with October 2017, while new finance for commercial vehicles increased by 23% over the same period.

Commenting on the figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, Head of Research and Chief Economist at the FLA, said:

“The asset finance market made a strong start to the final quarter of 2018, with new finance for construction and agricultural equipment up in October by 27% and 19% respectively, compared with the same month in 2017.

“Asset finance new business in 2018 as a whole is likely to reach a record level, despite continued economic uncertainty weighing on business investment.”

 

Oct 2018

% change on prev. year

3 months to Oct 2018

% change on prev. year

12 months to Oct 2018

% change on prev. year

Total FLA asset finance (£m)

2,890

+9

8,058

+6

32,310

+3

Total excluding high value (£m)

2,683

+3

7,485

+2

30,215

+2

Data Extracts:

By asset:

Plant and machinery finance (£m)

572

+16

1,663

+10

6,601

+2

Commercial vehicle finance (£m)

821

+23

2,103

+10

7,849

+4

IT equipment finance (£m)

167

-19

711

+19

2,741

+19

Business equipment finance (£m)

253

+29

671

+12

2,614

+2

Car finance (£m)

763

-14

2,033

-13

8,915

-5

Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance (£m)

76

+364

98

+125

308

-47

 

By channel:

Direct finance (£m)

1,360

-1

3,713

+1

15,044

0

Broker-introduced finance (£m)

578

+22

1,578

+14

6,002

+12

Sales finance (£m)

746

-2

2,194

-5

9,169

0

 

By product:

Finance leasing (£m)

430

+32

1,165

+24

4,075

+8

Operating leasing (£m)

520

-2

1,430

-11

6,063

-10

Lease/Hire purchase (£m)

1,653

+8

4,459

+6

17,702

+5

Other finance (£m)

195

-11

668

-1

3,055

Asset finance market reports double-digit growth in August

New figures released today by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew by 10% in August, compared with the same month last year.

The plant and machinery finance sector reported new business up in August by 10% compared with the same month in 2017, while new finance for business equipment was up by 15% over the same period.

Commenting on the figures, Geraldine Kilkelly, Head of Research and Chief Economist at the FLA, said:

“The asset finance market reported broad-based new business growth in August.  The plant and machinery finance sector grew at its strongest rate so far this year, with new finance for construction, manufacturing and agricultural equipment up by 32%, 31% and 10% respectively, compared with August 2017.”

Aug 2018 % change on prev. year 3 months to Aug 2018 % change on prev. year 12 months to Aug 2018 % change on prev. year
Total FLA asset finance (£m) 2,422 +10 8,308 +5 32,080 +2
Total excluding high value (£m) 2,268 +8 7,818 +4 30,264 +3
Data Extracts:
By asset:
Plant and machinery finance (£m) 566 +10 1,722 -4 6,506 0
Commercial vehicle finance (£m) 583 +12 1,917 +9 7,714 +3
IT equipment finance (£m) 198 +15 826 +37 2,651 +18
Business equipment finance (£m) 214 +15 706 +3 2,573 +2
Car finance (£m) 582 -1 2,274 -3 9,217 -1
Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance (£m) 10 +52 81 +197 257 -58
By channel:
Direct finance (£m) 1,143 +7 3,930 +1 15,070 0
Broker-introduced finance (£m) 483 +12 1,543 +20 5,864 +9
Sales finance (£m) 642 +6 2,345 +2 9,330 +3
By product:
Finance leasing (£m) 295 +11 965 0 3,877 +3
Operating leasing (£m) 427 -5 1,478 -7 6,224 -9
Lease/Hire purchase (£m) 1,316 +9 4,577 +8 17,553 +5
Other finance (£m) 240 +7 928 +7 3,081 -6

 

BLME launches asset finance firm Carrick for SME funding

A Glasgow-based lender has launched to improve cashflow to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a “buoyant” asset finance market.

Carrick Asset Finance, a new entrant to the UK business asset finance sector, launched yesterday with support from the Bank of London and the Middle East (BLME). It aims to help SMEs release capital tied up in their assets or acquire business critical assets, through products and services including hire purchase, lease purchase, finance lease, sale and lease back. BLME, a Sharia’a law compliant bank, cited asset finance as a central part of its strategy, and “critical to the success of SMEs”.

The Carrick business will be based in Glasgow but will deal with brokers and customers across the whole of the UK. According to the British Business Bank, more than 65 per cent of SMEs sought finance during the past three years, with over one third of these companies using lease or asset-based finance, which tended to come from non-bank sources, such as asset finance companies.

Fred Yue, head of corporate banking for BLME, said: “The asset finance market is buoyant in the UK and there are considerable opportunities for asset finance companies. “With our funding, the experienced team at Carrick will be well placed to access these opportunities by providing customer-focused asset finance to customers directly and via brokers. “We look forward to working with the management team and believe they will provide a much needed source of lending to the SME market.”

Carrick’s management team includes Gerard Moon and Iain Corbett, who have more than 50 years’ combined experience in the leasing sector and at asset finance start-ups.

Moon said: “The relationship with BLME has been established for a number of years and we welcomed the opportunity to develop a partnership with them. “They have been proactive and helpful throughout the negotiations and we are pleased with their flexibility and the breadth of the BLME funding arrangement. “Our priority now is to get out there and let our broker contacts hear about all that we have to offer.”

Corbett added: “Our overarching objective is to be much more than just another funder, it is to become a true business partner. “We will work with a small, targeted group of brokers where we will invest time and effort to really understand their financing needs, building a strong partnership with them. “Our team in Glasgow will work to a high level of service, providing a personalised approach to each and every customer and transaction. “This is a very exciting opportunity for everyone involved.” Via The Scotsman

Return to the News page >

Leasing firm launches with support of BLME

A new leasing firm has launched to provide funding to SMEs, backed by Bank of London and The Middle East plc (BLME).

Glasgow-based Carrick Asset Finance is being headed up by a management team including UK leasing industry specialists Gerard Moon of Macquarie Asset Leasing and Iain Corbett, who have worked in the leasing sector and at asset finance start-ups for over 50 years collectively, and will target SMEs through a range of products and services including: hire purchase, lease purchase, finance lease, sale and leaseback offered through selected brokers.

This will include fleets. Iain Corbett, director, Carrick Asset Finance, said: “The transportation sector will inevitably end up being a key area of business for Carrick. Asset such as buses, coaches, heavy & light commercial vehicles, trailers and cars are likely to feature prominently in our portfolio as it develops.” Article by Natalie Middleton  via Fleet World

Return to the News page >