Interleasing chasing stranded car dealers
Interleasing, a financing arm of General Motors Holden, is not suffering the same funding problems that recently forced GE Commercial and GMAC to quit the market for wholesale financing and fleet leasing, according to its managing director Michael Mitrovits.Mitrovits, who also currently holds the chairman position for the Australian Fleet Lessor's Association, said Interleasing has no plan to follow GE and GMAC out of the market."Its absolutely business as usual at Interleasing, and there are some great opportunities presenting themselves."Mitrovits views the current vehicle financing environment as an opportunity."We are out there actively seeking out companies that are looking for liquidity in their business. They may own cars or finance them by bank bills or some other facility, and we are coming to them with the opportunity that we can fund your vehicles under lease, and create some liquidity that way so they can continue to fund general business operations."We are out there hunting them as we speak."Banks increased funding lines at Interleasing in 2007, according to Mitrovits.The outstanding Interleasing securitisation program as at December 2007 was $200 million, up from $176 million a year earlier, according to the most recent financial statements."We still have our funding lines in place, they are all confirmed, and we have been drawing down on them on a daily basis and we have, looking out onto the horizon, no reason there will be a problem for our company, as we are accessing the cash as we need to, to keep putting cars on the road."Mitrovits said Interleasing has continued to draw down on the securitisation facility during 2008, with 2009 growth ambitions covered, confirming the securitisation is with a major Australian bank."If we look at our new car growth last year (calendar year) it was eight per cent, so we anticipate our growth this year to be a positive six per cent."We have already set ourselves up to allow our balance sheet to grow."Mitrovits said Interleasing's current growth estimation for 2009 is four per cent."The softening in the market will be offset by some of the other opportunities. I think retraction in the market would probably be the first outcome, then the next natural step would be consolidation."At this point in time, I have seen no signs of consolidation in our market, but 2009 might present something different, it just depends on how long the credit crisis continues."I think some of the smaller players will find it more difficult to grow, when there are lots of opportunities to grow at the moment, because we are certainly getting a lot of enquiries when we are out there talking to customers."At the moment it looks as though all current players are firmly entrenched in the market."