One of my contacts told me that the highlight of the annual factoring jamboree currently being held in Barcelona was a lecture by a couple of Americans on mezzanine finance in which they appeared to have little grasp of what the subject was that they were lecturing on with each of them often contradicting the other when he had made a mistake in his presentation.
It would seem that the number of representatives from factoring companies was dwarfed by the huge delegation from the world of insolvency as they utilised the opportunity to try and butter up the factors all in one place
There were a lot of IP’s there with some leaving the bar – (sorry – conference) early to attend to more work at home. Overall behaviour was pretty good with responsible lenders and back-up sectors recognising trying economic circumstances and restricting themselves to a couple of lime & sodas. Some of the conference presentations were poor and ABFA should consider more relevant speakers (than say a Bibby sales pitch)such as lawyers or IP’s offering their take on the current issues to be addressed
I imagine that IP’s are going to be rather busy in the next few months 🙂
Do those “responsible lenders” include people like GE and GMAC who seem to have pulled down the shutters with the former just opening them up every now and again to lob out the odd Five Arrows client that they no longer want