An equipment leasing industry merger announced today will create The Alta Group Asset Management Practice, within The Alta Group’s global operations.  Alta CEO John Deane and Carl Chrappa, CEO of Independent Equipment Company (IEC), said the new practice, to be headed by Chrappa, will meet comprehensive equipment management needs of clients worldwide.

The practice will provide asset management services, such as those IEC has offered for 30 years, including portfolio management, litigation support, equipment inspections and valuations, residual value analyses, equipment sales and remarketing, as well as special industry/ vendor studies.  In addition, the new Asset Management Practice will focus on integrating equipment and residual management competencies into clients’ strategic plans and value propositions.

An industry pioneer, Chrappa is widely known as an expert, speaker and author of several books and numerous articles on the subject of commercial asset management.

“He has an incredible reputation and his company’s service is highly valued,” said Deane. “The timing of this merger is very good because we, and our clients, see equipment residual information becoming more and more critical in daily business decisions. Greater asset knowledge is also sought in emerging markets, where operating leases are becoming more prevalent,” he said.

“The greatest challenge facing leasing industry executives is making profitable decisions amidst increased competition and regulatory compliance issues. What’s critical is having high quality strategic information,” Chrappa noted.  “This merger with The Alta Group will give us the opportunity to provide our clients worldwide with the most effective asset management approaches, along with the combined knowledge and expertise of some of the best minds in the industry.”

Chrappa will join Alta’s executive management team, composed of Deane, Paul Bent, Rafael Castillo-Triana, Jonathan Fales, Bruce Kropschot, and Tom Wajnert.

Active for many years in the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA), Chrappa is also a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute, Turnaround Management Association, and the Commercial Finance Association. In addition, he serves on a survey panel for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, providing data used for macroeconomic forecasting

Chrappa co-authored the book, A Leasing Company’s Guide to Equipment Management, published by the ELFA, and he provides extensive equipment research reporting in an annual article, What’s Hot and What’s Not, which is published in industry trades.

Chrappa holds domestic and international senior appraisal accreditations from professional societies, including ASA from the American Society of Appraisers, MRICS from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, IFA from the National Association of Independent Fee Appraisers, and he is also a registered auctioneer.

Alta’s new Asset Management Practice will include five employees of Chrappa’s company, IEC, based in Clearwater, Fla. and at other strategic U.S. locations. IEC also brings a huge database of equipment sales, estimated at substantially more than 1 million, to the new Alta practice.

Chrappa began his career performing industrial real estate and equipment appraisals; he established a company’s commercial appraisal unit and then joined the publicly traded residual value guarantee company, International Capital Equipment (ICE), as a vice president.  He later served as vice president of asset management for TRAC Systems/Signal Capital Corp., where he managed the workout of a multi-billion dollar lease portfolio. Chrappa was recruited in 1989 to be president of Independent Equipment Company (IEC), which he acquired from D’Accord Financial Services, a San Francisco investment bank, in 1993.

Since 1992, The Alta Group has represented equipment leasing and finance companies, financial institutions, manufacturers and service providers, offering management consulting and expertise in global market entry, vendor finance, professional development, legal support services, and mergers and acquisitions. The full array of practices (including the new asset management practice) in North America is described at www.thealtagroup.com/north-america.