Bender: To expand on Kiran’s comments, I think it’s also important to note that you will be seeing more personnel announcements on the sales side over the next few months rather than the operational side. We have a strong operational and leadership team already in place that we can leverage further and run a lot more volume though our company.
Additionally it’s important to note that we don’t see ourselves as generalists. I came from the asset world having grown up in JJ Bender, and we don’t want to play in technologies or assets we don’t feel comfortable within nor fully understand. As a company we are very opportunistic to new business, but we are not going to be everything to everybody. We need to be smart about the opportunities we will pursue. Therefore, we’ve narrowed down our focus in terms of our asset classes into four markets:
- Converged Technologies
- Diversified Industrial – the core industry in this group is material handling equipment.
- Copiers & Print
- Energy
Our largest verticals are Copier and Print and Diversified Industrial. We see converged technologies as a strong growth market for us. IT, software, audio-visual, security and a number of other technologies are trending toward becoming one packaged solution made up of multiple brands. So we are seeing a convergence of services in these markets that help people run their businesses. By providing a true a turnkey package to customers which includes financing, we believe we will have a significant competitive advantage.
Equipment Finance Advisor: Will Cloud Technology be included in this Converged Technologies focus?
Kapur: Yes, our team has a lot of experience in cloud financing particularly at the vendor level. Part of what we have been working on more recently with some vendors is how to structure the cloud technology offerings within a package so vendors can monetize as much of the stream as possible.
Equipment Finance Advisor: What size transactions is GSG targeting and do you offer tax-leasing as an option?
Bender: Our funding model includes bank lines as well as our own capital which gives us a major advantage over a single financial institution or equipment finance company utilizing one method of funding because our credit box can be much wider. Generally we do not go below $25,000 on a deal, but we also go as high as multi-million deals. As we look at the different vendor markets, we seek vendors that can show us a wide variety of transactions, deals sizes and credit types because we can fund these deals in multiple ways and still service the customer.
From a product offering perspective, we are doing tax leases and capital leases. The majority of our business tends to be Fair Market Value Leases (FMV) and this is where we provide the greatest value as we are a tax player.
Equipment Finance Advisor: GSG Energy focuses on sustainable energy solutions. Please tell our readers about the focus of this specialized group within this market.
Bender: Finding a way to finance assets while simultaneously benefiting for the environment really thrills me personally. So we developed a part of our company to pursue the financing of sustainable energy projects. And we designed it around four core areas:
- Lighting Retrofits
- Renewables
- Traditional HVAC Upgrades
- Building Controls
We have hired people from that world who are very passionate about the environment. This is truly a developing market and often the vendors don’t know exactly what they are looking for, so part of this plan is to create financing options that will help them be more successful.
Equipment Finance Advisor: Where do you see your company in five years and how would you describe your views of the equipment finance industry for 2014 an 2015?
Kapur: We look at this as a journey as we want to be one of the top independent lessors in the next few years. Therefore, we need to be intelligent about how we accomplish this goal and remain flexible in order to capitalize on new opportunities as they arise.
Bender: I’ve gotten more involved in the ELFA over the past few years. I am on the Independent Middle Market Business Council Steering Committee, and also on the Membership Committee. I’m hearing a lot of very bullish feedback from industry people, but there are certainly a lot of concerns as the markets get compressed and regulations deepen. Part of what I am most excited about as an independent finance company is our ability to be nimble, flexible and creative – these are core attributes of our culture.