Leasing News

Equipment Leasing staff as Associate Director. In addition to serving as Editor of Newsline, Irene will work with Executive Director Fran Schwartz and the Associate Director, Arthur Schwartz.

Irene formerly worked with the California Escrow Association, and has a background in publications, public relations and marketing.

WAEL Newsline, 1981

Classified---Jobs Wanted---

Sales Manager: Seattle, WA

Senior level sales professional w/ (20) plus experience in mid market financing & leasing. The last (8) plus years being self employed in middle market brokerage. Email:markhenley@qwest.net

Sales Manager: Atlanta, GA

30 years in transportation Finance with strong management/ sales background. Represented company on national & region markets. Started two successful operations- produce profits and growth. Email:pml@mindspring.com

Sales Manager: Atlanta, GA

Professional. finance mgr. w/formal credit ed./ reg. vp/ secured/unsecured commercial loans/ direct end user network/equip. leasing/structuring small,mid,big ticket transactions. 10+ years NE & SE. Have vendor servicing w/existing and active network of accounts will bring with me. Email:AlanAustin2000@msn.com

Sales Manager: New York, NY

I have over 25 years owning an independent leasing company that specialized in truck leasing. Tow trucks, Limos, ambulances, tractors, etc.. Email:rfleisher@rsrcapital.com

Senior Management: Long Island, NY

Degree Banking/Finance. 13 years leasing exp. Now prez young leasing company where promises were not met. Interested in joining established firm with future. Email:bob33483@yahoo.com

full list at: http://65.209.205.32/LeasingNews/JobPostings.htm

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GE Sells Bonds in Year's Largest Sale

By REUTERS

NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Electric Co. (GE.N) on Thursday sold $5 billion of 10-year global notes, the year's largest U.S. corporate bond sale, to help it pay for an equity infusion for its finance arm and boost reserves in its insurance businesses.

The rare bond sale by the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company drew about $9 billion of bids and more than 300 investors. Companies are this week selling more than $14 billion of bonds to investors seeking higher yields than on safer government debt, but still nervous about Iraq and corporate profitability.

GE, whose operations include commercial and consumer financing, jet engines and NBC television, carries ``triple-A'' credit ratings but its bonds carried a 5.048 percent yield, higher than yields on some lower-rated bonds. For example, Anheuser-Busch Cos. (BUD.N), the maker of Budweiser beer and rated four notches below GE, on Wednesday sold $200 million of 12-year notes yielding just 4.686 percent.

Scott Colbert, who oversees $6.5 billion as head of fixed income at Commerce Trust Co. in St. Louis, said GE's notes offered ``pretty good value'' but did not buy them because he owns GE Capital bonds and caps his exposure to individual companies at 2 percent.

``With General Electric, you have one of the largest borrowers out there, and everyone knows to expect a lot of supply,'' he said. ``Because of the blowups in WorldCom (WCOEQ.PK), Enron (ENRNQ.PK) and others, many investors have decided 'We're not going to take more than X percent' in any credit. It only takes one downtick and no buyers to send prices on these securities moving much more than they need to.''

GE's 5 percent notes were priced at 99.626 cents on the dollar to yield 5.048 percent, or 1.12 percentage points more than similar maturity U.S. Treasuries. The yield margin shrank to 1.09 percentage points once trading began.

GE last quarter took a $1.5 billion charge to boost reserves in its Employers Reinsurance Corp. unit, which faced large asbestos- and Sept. 11-related claims.

The parent, which last week posted a 21 percent drop in fourth-quarter profits, plans no more bond sales this year.

INFREQUENT ISSUER

Shares of GE, a Dow Jones Industrial Average component, closed Thursday at $23.95, up 40 cents. They have fallen 36 percent in the last year.

Lehman Brothers Inc., Morgan Stanley and Salomon Smith Barney arranged GE's sale, which took two days to market.

Drew Ertman, co-head of syndicate at Morgan Stanley, said the bond sale was GE's first in at least a decade, and the third time a U.S. company, apart from government-sponsored issuers, sold $5 billion of fixed-rate debt in a single maturity -- GE Capital and Ford Motor Co.'s (F.N) finance arm were others.

``Very few companies can raise $5 billion in a single tranche in two days,'' he said. ``It's a sign that the corporate bond market is still extremely liquid, focused on buying high quality credits.''

He said had GE Capital, which ended 2002 with $271 billion of debt, sold $5 billion of 10-year notes, it might have had to offer another 0.15 to 0.2 percentage points of yield.

``The bonds were sold by an infrequent issuer with no term debt outstanding,'' he said. ``This will join the industrial component of all major bond indexes, which creates a need among investors who use those indexes as benchmarks.''

GE Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin last week said GE Capital plans to sell $60 billion of bonds this year, down from $88 billion in 2002.

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Favorable Conditions Prevail in Early '03

ABSNet

The values of asset-backed securities are slowly recovering.

Spreads on most new and secondary-market issues narrowed by a few basis points about a week ago, and it looks like they'll continue that trend in the weeks ahead. Unfortunately for issuers, however, it could be a long time before they'll enjoy the same bargain-basement funding that was available to them before the market soured in the second half of 2002. "Investors are concerned about rising bankruptcies and consumer troubles. War concerns are putting pressure on the market as well," said one market player. "All of this will put a limit on significant spread-tightening in the near future."

Nonetheless, traders and routine ABS issuers said they're just happy to see funding costs declining for the first time in months. They expect spreads on top-rated benchmark issues to tighten by another 2-4 bp by the end of January, now that most investors have opened their books for 2003. Spreads on two-year credit-card bonds, for example, have already tightened by 2 bp, to 5 bp over swaps, since Jan. 1.

"Pricing is more reasonable now than it was four months ago," said one issuer. "There's a lot of cash ready to go." For example, GMAC's Residential Funding Corp. was particularly pleased on Jan. 14, when its $1.5 billion home-equity loan securitization fetched spreads that were well below the original price talk.

The resurgent demand for ABS should easily absorb the $8 billion to $12 billion of new deals that are expected in each of the next few weeks. "All the usual suspects are queuing up. If they haven't come so far, they're looking at the market," said Dan Castro, who oversees structured-finance research at Merrill Lynch.

Honda and DaimlerChrysler are among those considering auto-loan transactions, although the size and timing of their deals are uncertain. Separately, MBNA America and Citibank were working on credit-card issues late this week. Citi actually expanded its deal by $500 million, to $1.25 billion in response to heavy demand. Likewise, MBNA doubled the size of its subordinate offering, to $200 million.

Secondary-market activity has also picked up considerably since early last week, especially in the credit-card, auto -loan and home-equity-loan sectors. "It seems like every day there are multiple bid lists, and that wasn't true a month ago," Castro said.

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Gold price surges to six-year high

By Bruce Stanley, Associated Press

LONDON (AP) The price of gold surged Thursday to a six-year high, propelled by fears of a looming showdown with Iraq and the weakness of alternative investment havens such as stocks and the U.S. dollar.

Gold has risen more than 14 percent in the past 60 days and is likely to rise further amid growing nervousness that a U.N. weapons inspections report to be issued Monday might trigger a U.S.-led war on Iraq.

''It's been a pretty spectacular rise,'' said Kelvin Williams, executive director of the world's second-largest gold mining company, AngloGold Ltd. of South Africa.

Gold has increased steadily in value since mid-2001, and the growth has accelerated in recent weeks without showing any sign of flagging.

''The trend may well be more on the upside than the down,'' said Philip Newman, an analyst at the precious metals consultancy Gold Fields Mineral Services Ltd.

Gold rose $4.80 to settle at $364.50 per troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the highest it's traded since March 3, 1997, when it hit $366.00 in interday trading. Earlier, in London trading, the precious metal gained 70 cents to close at $364.00 per troy ounce, also a six-year high.

Investors have piled into gold in part as an alternative to the poor performance of major stock markets.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 51 points to close at 8,369, having dropped nearly 501 points in the previous five sessions. Blue-chip shares in London fell Thursday to their lowest level in nearly seven years, with the Financial Times-Stock Exchange 100-Share Index closing down 56 points at 3,622.

Ailing U.S. equities have helped drag down the dollar, which reached a new three- year low against the euro Thursday of $1.0761. The euro was worth $1.0754 in late New York trading.

A bigger reason for the recent run-up in the price of gold has been growing anxiety about a possible war in the Persian Gulf.

Gold has traditionally been seen as a reliable store of value during times of economic and political uncertainty, and heightened tensions over a U.N. report on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, expected on Jan. 27, have added a ''war premium'' to its price. An outbreak of war could cause the price of gold to spike by as much as $20 per troy ounce, Newman said.

Williams said he could imagine a buying frenzy that lifts gold to as much as $400 per troy ounce.

However, gold could crash if a war proves to be quick and confined to within Iraq's borders. Newman estimates that in such a scenario, the gold price could plunge by 20 percent to as little as $310 per troy ounce.

''We wouldn't see gold crashing all the way down to $300,'' Williams said. ''I would be very surprised if it didn't hold between $320 and $330.''

Speculators seeking quick profits are contributing to this potential price volatility, analysts said.

''We have seen some new players on the speculative side of the market who haven't traditionally traded precious metals in the past,'' Newman said. If a war on Iraq ends quickly, these short-term investors could dump their gold in a hurry and speed any decline in its price.

Physical demand for the metal in key markets in Asia and the Middle East could dwindle if gold becomes much more expensive, making it harder to justify prices the high-$300 range, Newman added.

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Odds and Ends---Friday

Job Market

I have been called several times from the ad, but I have decided, in all honesty, I'm hoping more for the job at a bank. It would be nice to have the security of a company that's been around for a hundred years. I always approach any opportunity with a brokerage, even a 'super broker', with a grain of salt. I know that broker days are numbered these days with the big players trying to bring in all the business directly. I'm sure there will still be brokers sending business to

the big boys, but it won't be at the volume we have seen in the past. The

cost of funds is too low right now for there to be much of a profit available for a 3rd party.

( name with held )

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Mark Speros

I assume you are attempting to be funny with your comments about Mark Speros. Mark happens to be one if not the most honest, responsible and reliable people that ever graced the equipment leasing business with his presence. Mark worked with me for 20 years and was a loyal and extremely fine associate.

Howard Freedman

Address = PO Box 42127

City = Portland

State = Or

Zipcode = 97242

Phone = 503 234 8617

http://www.leasingnews.org/#past

(None of the remarks come from us regarding Pictures from the Past of Mr. Speros. The dictionary definition and all quotes regarding the picture were

written by Mr. Speros himself. He liked the previous picture we ran ( he was much younger), and wanted readers to see him today. The comments were his and we didn’t change a word. I have known Mark since his Denrich days. I can add to your description that he is probably one of the best credit persons in the leasing business. editor )

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2002 Complaint Bulletin Board Report

I thought you did an excellent job in outlining what your complaint

dept. accomplished during 2002. You are doing a great service for the

high-integrity leasing companies by trying to resolve disputes and by

exposing those companies that lack good business ethics.

Bruce Kropschot

BKropschot@aol.com

Kropschot Financial Services

116 Estuary Drive

Vero Beach, FL 32963

(772) 234-4544

http://www.leasingnews.org/#leasing

Tech idea:

Is there a way to put in "clicks" so your reader can click on a subject and

it will go to that point on the page?

I suppose if you posted it to a website you could do it ...

Hope all is well with you ...

Take care...

Brian

brian@leasesource.net

Ten years in business this month. Catching up to you !

(yes, we have been doing that since August 9,2002 on line at www.leasingnews.org. We also have changed the time

we post Leasing News on line, primarily for the East Coast

readers.

You will not in the top masthead we print when each leasing news

is posted on our website: www.leasingnews.org. It generally is

around 7:00am, PDT. Sometimes earlier, sometimes later, depending

on the size and some other factors.

You click on the headline and it goes to the story.

We have been “toying” with the idea of sending out an HTML version

with “Day in American History. “ It really is additional cost for us, not

just “labor cost.” We would have to use a service, maintain a double

list, and one main problem is all AOL users would receive in text

format, not HTML. It is my experience when the copy is longer

than a certain size, it is put into “text format” by AOL to save

server service.

I know Jeff Taylor is now charging for his newsletter. We could start

an HTML newsletter, but I doubt we would have many who would pay

$49.95 a year. I am waiting to see how many subscribe to Jeff’s newsletter

as an indicator. editor )

Keep up the good work Kit. We all think your site is the best!

Rosanne Wilson, CLP

rosanne@1stindependentleasing.com

Super Bowl---What Are You Doing?

I will be at home on Super Bowl Sunday with a small gathering of friends watching Tampa Bay defeat Oakland 35-31.

A shootout!

Jim Fleming

nationalbusinesscredit@yahoo.com

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We will be attending a "Soup-er Bowl" party at the Church.

The cost is a can of soup with a dollar bill taped to it. The soup goes to

the food pantry and the money to the benevolence fund.

There will be snacks, games for the kids and a huge screen to watch the

game.

Fred St Laurent

Managing Director - Recruiting

Bradbury and Williamson, Inc

Financial Services Division

4550 River Green Parkway - Suite 120

Duluth, Georgia 30096

(770) 813-3320 ext 124 Office

(770) 813-8776 Fax

freds@bwresults.com

www.bwresults.com

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My super bowl will be spent on an airplane returning from Portland and the UAEL Board Meeting this weekend.

GO OAKLAND! (Is Ken Stabler still QB?)

Bob Fisher, CLP

b.fisher@firerockcapital.com

(Yes, but he changed his name to Rich Gannon. editor)