Pan-European Leasing Recruitment

Vendor Finance

	Vendor Programmes
	Captive Lessors
	Joint Ventures

Sales Aid Market

	I.T.
	Telecoms
	Business Equipment

Direct Corporate

	Small Ticket
	Middle Ticket+
	Brokers/Packagers

In mainland Europe, as in the UK, it is the vendor and captive leasing sectors that are most buoyant in terms of providing new opportunities. This approach to financing in Europe was first developed in the UK and led by US companies, with the captives at the forefront. Today we see a mature and further maturing market throughout most of western Europe and a quickly developing one in eastern Europe, including Russia. Captive leasing companies may have led the way, but bank-owned and independent vendor leasing organisations have been quick to follow. The sector has strong both US and European participants and has seen considerable concentration over the past 5 years, as well as a number of new market entries, primarily within the captive/branded sector.

As an organisation expands throughout this region it requires a growing number of staff, both with local and pan European expertise. It is our experience that all national front office positions, as well as credit and risk roles are successfully filled by nationals from the specific country within which an organisation is either establishing or expanding. Other roles may require pan European experience and languages, as well as an increasingly stronger demand to potentially re-locate within Europe.

This is a very active and ever changing arena, where Manning Solutions benefit from considerable experience and an enviable track record of success.

This is the high volume small ticket end of the market – with fast responding systems, communications and process support being the order of the day. Dealers and suppliers might often encourage a number of Lessors to pitch for business alongside each other, but we are now seeing a definite increase towards certain larger relationships being established across the whole of Europe. These may often be instituted on a sole supplier/programme basis. 

A number of major new players have entered the market in recent years, and this has certainly created a highly competitive environment. Underlying assets are spread across a broad spectrum, ranging through office equipment, PCs, Telecoms, CCTV, some medical, materials handling, engineering and agriculture.

A strong emphasis continues to rest in the recruitment of good account relationship managers in the “sales” side of this sector, particularly given what can often be very long lead-in times for the identifying and establishing of new and worthwhile sales aid programmes. Back-office support staff play an integral part in the ongoing management and success of any given client relationships. We are regularly handling new opportunities, many of which can also arise within the localised credit risk functions of these sales-aid lessors. 

This is an area where we have seen radical developments in recent times. Certain small/middle ticket lessors have already publicly retrenched their business focuses, with a concentration on reducing salesforce headcounts. This has handed the initiative to established banks, who now tend to dominate this sector. Such banks will provide a strong local presence, often with the assistance of localised call centre operations working in tandem with corporate banking offices, and better able to compete on margin.

At the same time brokers and packagers have become an even more important and stronger source of introduction. Many have established greater added value solutions and have carved out real niches within the European marketplace. Such  business is also not limited to that sourced directly from lessees, but includes a wide range of distributor/supplier financing arrangements across a broad range of assets.