We are pleased to announce the publication of this year’s edition of Company Car and Van Tax, published in association with ALD Automotive and KPMG.

The book – fully updated after the 2012 Budget – covers everything a fleet manager or company vehicle driver needs to know about tax, including car benefit tax, fuel benefit tax, VAT, income tax, corporation tax, capital allowances, fuel duty, vehicle excise duty and national insurance contributions.

Speaking of the launch, both Keith Allen, MD of ALD Automotive and Harvey Perkins, Partner at KPMG, said how pleased they were to have been asked again to participate in the production of the book.

The book is available as a PDF e-book to download now from here.

The paperback will be available in June and may be ordered now from here, W H Smith and good bookshops.

Published by: Eyelevel Books, Worcester. ISBN 9781902528342. £40 paperback, £40+VAT e-book. Special launch offer: Save 25% on PDF e-book

In the last six months, however, things have changed. I have been approached nine times by hedge funds or corporate financiers looking to buy (or arrange the purchase of) contract hire companies. I’m only one person, so this is by no means a scientifically-surveyed cross-section of activity in this market but if my experience is anything to go by it’s clear that there is more interest in this sector now than at any time since I joined it 32 years ago.

I have asked them all why they’re so interested in this market and by and large they all tell the same story.

They are attracted to the returns in the sector, though they realise these are cyclical. (They find themselves talking to me because they want to understand the risks in the market, particularly maintenance budget and residual value risk).

They also like the fact that some of the leasing companies are huge, requiring large amounts of capital and debt. Big deals mean commensurately big returns for any corporate finance house that can close one of these deals, and it seems that hedge funds are attracted to big deals too.

This is a niche market within a niche market, so I’ve wanted to find out how they were attracted to this sector, and almost without exception they’ve said they saw their competitors doing deals in this space and decided to check it out for themselves.

And it helps of course that they know there are some very willing sellers around at the moment.

Funding an acquisition seems to be the number one problem at the moment, and a lot of very clever people are working hard to solve it. They are looking at securitisation with some enthusiasm, because it offers the potential of near-unlimited funding so long as the resultant product is sufficiently flexible to accommodate real-life issues such as vehicle write-offs, early terminations and lease extensions.

Syndication is also being discussed: putting together a syndicate of investors and funders who together would be able to acquire and finance the largest of these businesses, or several large players at once.

There is no question in my mind that there are going to be more deals done in this market. The UK contract hire market is never a dull place. Over the next year or two I suspect it’s going to be even more interesting.

Colin Tourick

Read the sponsor’s introduction:

You can get a free copy here

This article can be read on Asset Finance International‘s website.

Asset Finance International, the website for leasing experts around the world, has launched an ‘online conference’ for its 28,000 registered members, which Colin Tourick is chairing.

Experts on equipment finance, motor finance and fleet leasing from all major leasing regions across the world, are being asked to prepare and deliver presentations covering:

1. An overview of their market in 2011
2. Some positive developments in 2011
3. Some negative developments in 2011
4. Some reasons for lessors in their region/sector to be optimistic in 2012.
5. The main challenges they will face in 2012

The first presentation has been recorded with Rafael Castillo-Triana of The Alta Group and you can download it here.

The series is sponsored by White Clarke Group.

Yesterday’s Buckingham Automotive Forum was well attended by leading automotive experts and several people commented that it was the best forum so far.

• Professor Peter Cook delivered a wide-ranging talk on the economic situation, in which he expressed ongoing concern about the likelihood of the UK returning to a full recession this year.
• Mike Wise, newly-appointed Director-Tyre Programmes at Epyx, explained how the internet is affecting the tyre market.
• Rick Yarrow; Managing Director; FleetEye AG, showed the results of research into the level of service the leasing industry delivers to its customers, which concluded that it’s doing ‘just ok’ but that there’s plenty of scope for improvement. .
• Colin Tourick delivered a talk that showed how sharply the UK contract hire industry has contracted in recent years, and compared this with the US market. (Actually he ‘eventually delivered’ this talk: an in-joke that only the attendees will understand)
• And Ian Brooks of the Compliance Bureau rounded off the forum with a talk about the link between corporate social responsibility and work-related road safety, and gave a ‘call to action’ for businesses to take road safety more seriously.

There was probably more discussion and interaction between speakers and the forum members than at any previous forum. All in all it was an excellent day.

The next Forum will be on 16 May.