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Januray
14, 2003
Post time 7:27 a.m. PST |
Headlines---
Pictures
from the Past ----1999-US Bancorp
Manifest Funding Services
NAELB
Increases Members 18%, up 74 from last year
Business
Leasing News---Latest Edition
Fitch
Webcast/Teleconf: 2003 ABS Outlook, Wed. 01/15 10AM
Investors
Lose $80B Par Value On 2002 Defaults--Fitch
Banknorth
to Close on American Financial Today
"Lessors.com"--
not "eLessors," you Dummy!!!!-Alexa Report
What
happened Kit? No
story about your Niners??
###
Denotes Press Release
Top
Storis of 2002----The Funding Tree
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Pictures from
the Past ----1999—US Bancorp
Manifest Funding Services
“Meet the
Northwest Team”
1999- US
Banccorp Manifest
Funding Services
From left to right, top to bottom, Regional Sales Manager
Jim Stekl, Broker Sales Representative Deb Schnaible, Account
Executive George Vandel, Account Executive Jeanna Welgraves,
Relationship Specialist Doc’s Kari Beck, Account Executive
Michelle Williams, Relationship Specialist Doc’s Emily Lindeman,
Sr. Documentation Analyst Lisa Smith
Classified Ads---Jobs Wanted
Credit: Long Beach, NY. Credit officer w/ more than 20 years
of experience. Seeking
position in which I can utilize my credit- collections,
communication &management skills. email:michaelschaubeck@webtv.net
Credit Manager: Kansas City, MO. Equipment finance and leasing,
inventory finance, construction & agricultural equipment.
email: impens@earthlink.net
Finance: Atlanta, GA
Twenty five plus years experience in middle market lease/
asset based/cash flow transactions. Heavy banking and credit
background, with particular expertise in structure and negotiation.
Email:brown235@bellsouth.net
Finance: Lyndhurst, NJ
CFO w/20+ years leasing/financing. Respected by lenders/rating
agencies full & fair financial reporting. Outstanding
record restructuring debt. Adept at investor relations and
mentoring people. Email:joemcdev@aol.com
Finance: Orange County, CA
CFO/Controller/IT Director - 15 years experience in leasing
and ABL. Experienced in: Accounting, Finance, Systems, Tax,
Operations,Securitizations, etc.MBA, ELA member. Many accomplishments.
Email:gosween@cox.net
Legal: Los Angeles, CA
Experienced in-house corporate and financial services attorney
seeks position as managing or transactional counsel. Willing
to re-locate. email:sandidq@msn.com
Full list, Classified:
http://65.209.205.32/LeasingNews/JobPostings.htm
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NAELB Increases Members 18%, up 74 from last year
Associates 17
Funders 40
Brokers 430
Totals 487
Gerry Egan
President
NAELB
President
TecSource, Inc.
5621 Departure Drive, Suite 113
Raleigh, NC 27616
Phone: 919-790-1266
Fax: 919-790-2262
E-Mail: mailto:GerryEgan@ForEquipmentLeasing.com
Internet: http://www.ForEquipmentLeasing.com
National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers
Mail: 5024-R Campbell Blvd.
Baltimore Md. 21236
Phone: 800.996.2352
Fax: 877.875.4750
Email: info@naelb.org
Contact: Bill Miller, CAE or Maria Turner. They will refer
any non-administrative matters or questions to NAELB Board
members for follow up.
This is a unique
association as it is basically for new and established leasing
brokers in the United States; other segments of the industry
are "members", but do not have any "voting
rights". Only brokers may vote for the board of directors
and change of policy in the organization.
The aim of NAELB is to help the leasing broker primarily.
The mission is education, standards, and "betterment"
for leasing brokers. The dues are quite economical, conferences
very well attended, with specialties of legal and colleague,
grass roots support of a "brotherhood," if that
word is acceptable today ( they have real, down to earth
espirit de corps ). Directors are actually voted upon "from
the floor", with actual "contests" for seats
on the board of directors. Perhaps the most unique feature,
worth much more than the $295 broker and $700 funder .
The conferences are also the most economical in registration,
hotel room, and costs.
It is not geared toward the large corporations with
expense accounts,
but entrepreneurs, people in business for themselves. There are broker members with more than ten employees, but the majority have less than five full time employees.
Here is a breakdown of members since June 30th,
2002:
NAELB Membership 6/30/02 12/31/02
Broker Members 404
430
Funder Members 40
40
Associate Members 16
17
Total Membership 460
487
NAELB approaches their members as if they were part of the
family. This is quite evident by the contribution since
inception by the hard work and contributions of two legal
experts, Barry S. Marks and Joseph Bonanno, who have worked
for members at all times of the day and for no pay but to
help out. Mr. Bonnano has a website of legal leasing information:
http:// www.leasingissues.com and Mr. Marks has published
a book on leasing, available by contacting phdleasing@hotmail.com
or bsm@blik.com.
The NAELB board of directors has an excellent track record
for keeping
expenses down, providing meaningful services, and getting
other members to volunteer their time to improve the association.
This is a unique "billboard" via their website
where members can communicate with each. It is also a semi-listserve
as members can also choose to have e-mail directed to them
with answers to questions or inquiries about where "to
place a deal" or express experience with a funder or
super broker.
The association also provides discounts on Airborne Express
and other products
to its members.
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 or go to the website: www.naelb.org.
National Association of Equipment Leasing Brokers Conference
and a copy of their
electronic newsletter
http://two.leasingnews.org/temporary/58917684.htm
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Business Leasing News---
Latest edition
http://two.leasingnews.org/temporary/BLN.htm
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######### #####################################
Fitch Webcast/Teleconf: 2003 ABS Outlook, Wed. 01/15 10AM
NEW YORK----Fitch Ratings will host a webcast and conference
call discussing its 2003 asset-backed securitizations (ABS)
credit outlook and performance update on Wednesday, January
15, 2003 at 10:00 A.M. Eastern Standard Time. The call and
webcast are open to the general public.
Managing and senior directors from Fitch's ABS group will
present 2003 forecasts and give an overview of 2002 performance
for the following asset types:
-- Aircraft
-- Equipment Leasing
-- Auto Loans and Leases
-- Student Loans
-- Credit Cards
In addition to a general outlook for the aforementioned asset
classes, Fitch analysts will comment on specific issuers
in each sector.
Those participating in the webcast are invited to enter 'www.mshow.com.'
Under 'Join a Show,' entrants should then type in show number
'83733.' The site will then prompt participants to input
their registration information. A link to the webcast will
also be available on Fitch's own site at 'www.fitchratings.com.'
For those participants without sound on their computers
or for those who only wish to listen to the webcast can
gain access to the audio for the conference call by dialing
888/266-3888 (domestic) or 706/643-1860 (international);
no passcode is required. A replay of the web cast will be
available for 60 days on both web sites.
CONTACT:
Fitch Ratings
Sara Grohl, 212/908-0564
Matt Burkhard, 212/908-0540 (Media Relations)
############# ###########################################
Investors Lose $80B Par Value On 2002 Defaults
Fitch Ratings- Marking an unprecedented decline in corporate
credit quality, 2002 produced $109.8 billion in high yield
defaults and a new par based record default rate of 16.4%,
exceeding 2001's $78.2 billion default volume and 12.9%
default rate. The number of defaulted issuers actually decreased
in 2002 to 163 from 2001's 173, but the average size of
2002 defaults, at $674 million per issuer was up 49% from
2001's $452 million per issuer. The biggest factor contributing
to the volume growth was by far the long list of supersized
telecommunication defaults. The likes of Global Crossing,
McLeod, Telewest and foremost, WorldCom, contributed $59.6
billion in defaults, a full 54% of the year's volume tally.
The average default balance for telecom issuers was $1.3
billion in 2002. The default rate for the sector, was an
astonishing 43.5% for the year and followed a 23.9% default
rate in 2001. The impact of the sector's crisis on default
statistics in the past several years cannot be overstated.
In 2001 and 2002, telecommunication defaults totaled $87.8
billion, nearly half the total default toll for the two
years of $188 billion. Another remarkable statistic - the
combined volume of defaults in 2001 and 2002 exceeded the
total volume of bond defaults in the U.S. from 1980-2000.
Fallen angels (companies rated investment grade one year
prior to default), including WorldCom, represented $35.7
billion of 2002 defaults, or 33% of the year's total. The
default rate excluding fallen angels was 12.4%. This rate
compared to a 2001 default rate excluding fallen angels
of 9.7%.
The top industry default rates in 2002 included: telecommunication
at 43.5% on default volume of $59.6 billion, insurance 35.2%
on default volume of $3 billion, cable 34.4% on default
volume of $16.5 billion, metals and mining 20.2% on default
volume of $3 billion, and utilities 14% on default volume
of $6.5 billion.
The year's top ten defaults represented 57% of 2002 default
volume with WorldCom making up nearly a quarter of the year's
volume.
Excluding fallen angel defaults, 20.9% of the year's defaulted
issues consisted of bonds sold in 1999, 21.3% bonds sold
in 1998 and 14.7% bonds sold in 1997. The three issuance
years continued to produce the bulk of defaults.
Excluding fallen angels, the default rate for the remaining
universe of high yield bonds was down substantially in the
second half of the year. The default rate was 9.3% through
June but just 3% for the six months ending December. While
defaults are still running at above average annual levels,
for the traditional high yield market they have slowed considerably
from the frenzied pace of the first half of 2002 when large
telecom and cable defaults caused default volumes to soar.
The weighted average recovery rate for all defaults in 2002
was 22% of par. In a reversal of last year's trend, fallen
angel defaults depressed the average recovery statistics.
The weighted average recovery rate excluding fallen angels
was 26% of par, a material improvement over the 15% of par
recorded in 2001. In total, investors lost 78% of par value
on the year's defaults, grossing more than $80billion.
Perhaps the biggest sign of the high yield market's continued
vulnerability at year end was the persistently large concentration
of bonds rated 'CCC/C'. The 'CCC/ C' pool started the year
at $117 billion and ended the year at $116 billion. Despite
the year's long list of defaults, downgrades continued to
replenish the 'CCC/C' bucket. In each quarter of 2002, the
dollar volume of downgrades towered over nearly negligible
upgrades.
Fitch's complete analysis of 2002 results with a full listing
of all defaults, an analysis of default and recovery rates
by industry and seniority, and a review of credit quality
measures for the U.S. high yield market will be available
on the Fitch Ratings web site at 'www.fitchratings.com'
in early February.
Overview of the Fitch U.S. High Yield Default Index:
Fitch's default index is based on the U.S., dollar denominated,
non-convertible, speculative grade bond market (the rating
equivalent of 'BB+' and below, rated by Fitch or one of
the two other major rating agencies). Fitch includes rated
and non-rated, public bonds and private placements with
144A registration rights. Defaults include missed coupon
or principal payments, bankruptcy, or distressed exchanges.
Default rates are calculated by dividing the volume of defaulted
debt by the average market size for the period under consideration.
Fitch's high yield default studies are available in the
'Credit Market Research' section at 'www.fitchratings.com'
Contact: Mariarosa Verde 1-212-908-0791 or Paul Mancuso 1-212-908-0225,
New York.
Media Relations: James Jockle 1-212-908-0547, New York.
########### ##########################################
Banknorth to Close on American Financial Today
PORTLAND, Maine----Banknorth Group, Inc. (NYSE:BNK) announced
that it will finalize its acquisition of American Financial
Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMFH), parent company of American
Savings Bank, a Connecticut chartered bank which has 34
branches in central Connecticut, today, February 14, 2003. Banknorth has received
all required regulatory approvals and American Financial
shareholders previously voted their approval of the acquisition.
The transaction is valued at approximately $709.3 million
in cash and stock. The acquisition will increase Banknorth's
assets in Connecticut to more than $4 billion and increase
its deposit market share position in the state from 14th
to 5th. In 2002, Banknorth acquired Bancorp Connecticut,
parent company of Southington Savings Bank, and American
Financial acquired American Bank of Connecticut. The combined
entities will operate as Banknorth Connecticut.
Under the terms of the transaction, each share of American
Financial common stock will be exchanged for either $32.00
or 1.22 shares of Banknorth common stock, plus cash in lieu
of any fractional share interest. Elections of stock or
cash will be subject to allocation procedures that will
ensure that 50% of American Financial common stock outstanding
immediately prior to the completion of the transaction will
be converted into shares of Banknorth common stock and 50%
will be converted into cash.
Election forms will be mailed in late January and American
Financial shareholders will have 20 days to elect their
preference for cash or stock, ending on or about February
19, 2003. The transaction is intended to qualify as reorganization
for federal income tax purposes. As a result, the shares
of American Financial stock exchanged for Banknorth stock
will be transferred on a tax-free basis.
Banknorth Group, Inc. is one of the country's 35 largest
commercial banking companies with total assets of $22.5
billion at September 30, 2002. The Company's banking subsidiary,
Banknorth, N.A. operates banking divisions in Connecticut,
Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont.
Banknorth also operates subsidiaries and divisions in insurance,
investment planning, money management, leasing, merchant
services, mortgage banking, government banking and other
financial services.
CONTACT:
Banknorth Group, Inc.
Brian Arsenault, 207/761-8517
SOURCE: Banknorth Group, Inc.
############## ################################################
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“Lessors.com” -- not “eLessors,” you Dummy!!!!—Alexa Report
Saw your response to Wayne Hunt and thought I would share
the following;
We actually closed the www.elessors.com site last September.
All traffic going
to that URL is directed to www.lessors.com. I might therefore
question the
Alexa report (although like Wayne, I question the accuracy
of all such reports
; see the end of this email), considering an incorrect URL
is being used
to evaluate a closed site and is still reporting volume numbers.
Our own questionable data indicates traffic to our site
has increased more than 40% over the last three months.
Actually, we have not gone to a “paid subscription”
policy. We still
provide free access to the Lessors Network for non-members.
Full visitor access is available beginning Monday morning
and closing the end of business (EST) Wednesday.
Restricted visitor access is available 24/7. We are also
the only online leasing
site providing update Business News over the weekends. (Like
how I slipped that
in?)
Getting back to the issue of web site hit counts, I though
you might be interest
in the following article I found on the internet awhile ago;
------------------------------
What You Need To Know About Volume
Unfortunately, you may have been led to believe advertising
on a web site reporting a high number of “hits” is always
the better advertising investment. The
following may change your mind.
Most advertisers think each “hit” represents one visit to
a web site,
but is it? Different statistical systems count hits differently,
which is why it's
easy to be misled by reported hit volume. Suppose a web site
has a main page including text and 10 small graphics. The
way the web works, you'll ask that site for 11 objects,
the main page plus the 10 graphics. You might think of this
as one hit, but some statistical systems count that as 11
hits! Some systems even continue to count hits if you reload
the page, or go to another page and return to the first
page. Now, one visit may have been counted as 22 hits!
Here is another consideration. America Online (AOL) will
“cache” your
page. In other words, the first AOL user who visits a page
causes that page to be
written to an AOL cache machine. From then on, whenever any
AOL users request this page, the AOL caching machine checks
with their computer to see if the page has changed. If it
hasn't, it delivers its cached copy, resulting in significant
speed improvements for the AOL user, but the statistical
count may be less.
Because of the hypertext nature of the Web, if a site has
5 pages, there is no
way of knowing in what order a visitor will begin their visit.
Some may start at
page 3, read pages 3 and 4, and then leave. If hits are only
measured beginning
from page 1, none of these visits will be counted.
Finally, there are many “gimmicks” a web site can use to
artificially
inflate their number of hits. For example, banners promoting
“Free”
are strategically placed on other web sites. A hit is registered
whenever anyone
clicks on the banner and is delivered to the web site even
thought the visitor has
no interest in what that site offers and immediately leaves.
Another trick is attracting non relevant visitors (at least
from an advertisers point of view) using “fluff”content
such as contest, news, gossip, etc.
You can begin to see how the number of hits reported by a
web site can be easily
skewed, which may account for the vast difference in hits
reported by web sites
competing for your advertising investment. We're not saying
hits aren't important,
but advertisers should also consider the actual content of
the site and the relevance
of the site's visitors to the advertiser.
Keep up the good work Kit.
Regards,
John Semon
.
The Lessors Network
(I thought the reason your site fell to the bottom was the
registration policy. But thank you for pointing out that
we never up-dated your website address from when
we started this.
Since January 1, you have a policy that only paid members
can access certain
parts of the site, and actually the site itself ( only on
East Coast office time is
it available to non-members .) I surely can appreciate want
to re-coup some
of the costs involved in hosting your site.
I start Leasing News
at 11pm every night, and the lessors.com site is closed,
unless you are a member.
The “viewing time” is East Coast business hours.
I also tried over the weekend, and it was closed to a non-members.
I will try again next weekend. There are many of us who
go on the internet over the weekend.
Being an original member of Website Garage ( remember that
group, purchased
later by Netscape ), Site Promoter ( still around ) and Web
Trends ( have the
founder version ,” I am aware of “volume;” however, I still
defend Alexa as
an indicator of what is “popular.” I understand the purist don’t want to
accept it as it is not “scientific,” but the information
it provides
is very good and I think somewhat reliable.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What happened Kit? No
story about your Niners??
Jeff Maaske
(The 49er flag is flying at half mast at the office. Several other readers have asked
for a report, but all I can say is Garcia wasn’t feeling
well, Maruicci
was stuck in the running game, Ahmed Plummer was hurt, Terrell
Owns
forgot his pen, and we were lucky to make it to the playoffs.
The 49ers all year long were a very mercurial team
under the direction of an idiot. We lost because
we sucked. That’s my report. Editor )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Samuel Joseph Gabriel
While I have four grand children from my late wife, Sue became
a grandmother at 12:58pm as her daughter Gretchen had a
baby boy, Samuel Joseph Gabriel, 7 pounds, 13 ounces, 19
1/2 inches tall, at Good Samaritan Hospital, The actual
delivery was less than a half hour, and may have been