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The factoring market in Germany has remained fairly steady in the last few months, with DG Bank continuing their dominance of the market. It remains to be seen whether Eurofactors will live up to their potential and stir up the market. The most significant development in recent months, according to Ulrich Bongartz, Managing Director of Bertelsmann Distribution GmbH, is the competition which is hotting up for filling the financing gap in an business to business transaction on the internet between two companies, previously unknown to each other.
01/08/2000
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There have been unprecedented numbers of mergers and acquisitions in the US factoring industry in the last 12 months, with CIT buying two smaller factors and GMAC's purchase of the Bank of New York. As yet, the consequences of this market consolidation are unclear. John Heffer, President of HSBC Business Credit (USA) Inc., laments the fact that there are no reliable industry statistics as very few factors publish their volume figures.
01/08/2000
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The government has succeeded in reducing interest rates to between 25-35%, which means that factors are having to operate under very small margins.
Eight banks have been amalgamated into the Central Turkish Fund, which will mean at least five or six factoring companies will disappear from the market. These factoring subsidiaries of banks are dormant at the moment and if they have not already ceased trading, will soon do so. As a result, the Turkish market is going through an interesting period of transition.
01/08/2000
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Two new players have recently joined the Romanian market, The Romanian Commercial Bank and Demir Bank of Romania in offering factoring services within the banking sector.
01/08/2000
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After the regional financial crisis of 1997 the Malaysian market is finally beginning to turn around. With a recorded growth in GDP of 19.1%, Mr Quek of Arab-Malyasian Merchant Bank said that factoring companies are now preparing to re-enter the market, buoyed by low interest rates and having gained more confidence than they had just a few years ago.
01/08/2000
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According to George Georghiou, Manager of Laiki Factors in Cyprus, there is likely to be a significant growth of around 30% in total factored volume in the year 2000. This is mainly due to tight liquidity caused by a downturn in the stock market, which many entrepreneurs invested in during 1999. They now require working capital to meet their business needs. As a result of this, factoring has seen unprecedented levels of business.
01/08/2000
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Consolidation among companies that provide finance for small businesses is making it harder for companies to get cash, reports the Wall Street Journal. The number of mergers and acquisitions in the last 12 months has been unprecedented leading many industry observers to comment that clients may find it impossible to tell from one week to the next just who to send their new invoices to. As the firms change hands and grow, their policies towards smaller clients change and their appetite for thinly capitalised clients has decreased.
01/08/2000
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Alliance & Leicester is trying to put together a joint venture with an invoice discounting and factoring supplier to offer a full range of business banking services, although further details on who is round the discussion table are currently not available. The new managing director of Alliance & Leicester, Peter McNamara, recruited from Lloyds TSB this year, is aiming to increase levels of business served through its Girobank small-business division - which will be renamed Alliance Business Banking - by at least 20-30 per cent a year.
01/08/2000
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Potential Finance Group plc, which was recently established to provide factoring & invoice discounting services to small and medium sized businesses, based in the United Kingdom, is to be floated on AIM (Alternative Investment Market) on 4 August 2000. There will be 10,473,600 ordinary shares of 25p each will be admitted with an issue price of 125p. The capital to be raised on admission is Ј6.6m.
01/08/2000
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According to Jeff Liu, Senior Vice President of the Chailease Finance Corporation, several banks are currently urging the Ministry of Finance to allow them to provide an import factoring service. The Ministry of Finance has studied the request, but so far has not reached a conclusion. Reasons for the delay in a response are thought to include objections from the Central Bank, who are concerned by the level of risk which banks will be exposing themselves to if an import factoring service is allowed.
31/07/2000
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Underlining an ongoing trend in Taiwanese banking, Dah An Commercial Bank have entered into a co-operative arrangement with the Chailease Finance Corporation. Dah An is the most recent of several banks to adopt and package Chailease’s factoring services as one of their own banking products. In May of last year, Chinfon Bank entered into a similar arrangement and more agreements are currently being discussed.
31/07/2000
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From August 2000, clients of the Chailease Finance Corporation, Taiwan’s largest international factor, will be able to access their accounts on line. The services available will include an on line credit request facility, credit response, A/R assignment and debt management (specifically dealing with receivable ledgers, payment reports and risk control reports).
31/07/2000
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Equity Participation and Trade Finance Services now available.
26/07/2000
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Key figures from Magyar Annual Report(HUF million) 1999
Total Assets 682,963 Shareholders' Funds 61,369 Profit before taxation 7,170 Capital Adequacy Ratio(BIS, unc.,%) 14.0%
26/07/2000
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The Bermuda based Bank of NT Butterfield & Son have made Ј60 million from an MBO of the Manchester based Davenport Group. The successful management team of four is headed by Colin Davenport. The rest of the team consists of Mike Hamlyn and Steve Marsh (who have both been with the company since 1991) and Ray Wise, one of the founders of Euro Sales Finance.
26/07/2000
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