Ian

Some factoring companies never learn

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A couple of months ago there was a rather “interesting” factoring case doing the rounds being a restart of a printing company that had gone bust defrauding Lloyds TSB in the process with loads of fresh air invoicing and as one would expect it was declined by all of the established factoring companies.

Much to my surprise I heard that this challenge had been taken up three weeks ago by one of the new kids on the block with a funding limit of £250,000

I have since heard that the factoring company are not happy with this partnership and are trying to unload it already giving the reason that they can’t offer more than £250,000 and the company really needs more than that.

The printing company obviously think that the more brokers they put it to increases the likelihood of finding a mug factor to take them on as there are currently at least two of the highest profile factoring brokers touting this around using the line that “this is a good little deal”

Neither broker is incompetent so they must be aware that all is not well with this particular deal and are hoping that the factoring companies that they are asking to look at this are too dumb to notice but that probably won’t be the case and the brokers will end up with their reputations tarnished whilst the new kids on the block will be keeping their fingers tightly crossed that they aren’t going to go the way of their predecessors already

Bank Santander enter the UK factoring market

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Bank Santander have entered the UK factoring market not with a bang but with a wimper. The Spanish banking giant has been sniffing around the many factoring companies for sale for some time and were rumoured to be the frontrunners to take over Cattles Invoice Finance until getting cold feet and have instead plumped for the little known Liquidity Ltd a small factoring outfit based in Birmingham.

I have always been very dubious of recommending any of my clients to Liquidity as it is run by the same person that used to be the Chief Executive of Euro Sales Finance until it was rescued by Royal Bank of Scotland in 2001. Prior to being taken over by the bank Euro Sales topped the league tables of independent factoring companies appointing Receivers to their clients.

In 1999 and 2000 Euro Sales Finance accounted for one in five of all Receiverships appointed by independent factoring companies which was a horrifying statistic and one that has ensured that I never deal with any factoring company that has any of their old directors in a management position.

Interesting times at Venture Finance

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Venture Finance are heavily into self promotion and it seems like every time they sign a client a press release does the rounds. The latest to hit the circuit was earlier this week when they announced that “its Q3 results for 2009 are the best it has achieved in a decade. The independent invoice and asset-based lender has provided consistent support to UK businesses, in what has been a difficult time for liquidity. As a result, Venture has witnessed a 42% increase in new clients above the usual third quarter average, dating back to 2000.”

Th company’s staff must be wondering quite what to make of this announcement as they had just been called to a staff meeting during which they were told that the company was looking for volunteers for redundancy as 20 staff were to be chopped.

Action Coach – scurrilous rogues or not?

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“Ray Moore is the Managing Coach in the ActionCOACH Chelmsford office. He is an energetic and dynamic coach to both business owners and fellow coaches. In the words of one of his clients “Coaching is only as good as the coach! Ray Moore is an excellent coach.”

Ray trained as an accountant but he quickly realised his destiny lay in the cut and thrust of commercial life. His career has encompassed a wide range of industries including manufacturing, property, retail and distribution.

Over the past 14 years Ray has successfully built his own businesses. In May 2001, he sold his last £6million turnover business to a FTSE100 company for above sector PE ratio.”

The above is quoted directly from his own website but if anyone wants a look at this dynamic man’s website this link may be of interest:-

Does it seem at all familiar? Well it should to many of you as apart from a new six word title it is lifted word for word from my website. One would have thought that a company like Action Coach would have the resources to create their own text without having to resort to stealing mine .

Would you trust a company that is happy to steal the intellectual property of others. I know I wouldn’t 🙁

Factoring Brokers – what should they do to earn their money

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I had a call this morning from someone who having read my website and blog wanted to check that the factoring company that they were about to sign up with were OK.

Chatting to the prospect it turns out that he had used a well known high profile “broker” who had supplied him with a list of factoring companies for him to contact including Bibby, Lloyds TSB, Hitachi and two others whose names he had forgotten.

I was rather surprised as I thought that the whole idea of using a broker was for them to source the best deal for the company and not just to give them a list of companies with no added value at all and I doubt whether the factoring companies themselves will work hard to win a deal and offer the most competitive terms if they are aware that every time they get a lead from this “broker” that half a dozen others have also touched it.