|
|
Kit
Menkin’s Leasing News
www.leasingnews.org Wednesday,
May 8, 2002 Accurate,
fair and unbiased news for the equipment Leasing Industry
Headlines---- Merrill Lynch Enters the Internet Fray CIT Offering of $1.07 Billion Lease Security Post office to cut 8,000 more workers, still faces major deficit Survey Finds Majority Small Biz Still Chose Choose Equip. Leasing U.S. Internet Traffic Experiences Annual Growth100%, Just 17% Revenue Growth CapitalStream Selects TIBCO Software Fed policies help soften blow of recession Actual Federal Reserve Press Release Office vacancy climbs to 19% in SF Bay Area Consumer Credit Grew $4.6B in March Wednesday ------ Odds and Ends Zagat restaurant surveys go online ###
Denotes Press Release (No
comments on the strong statement yesterday about CIT press relations---guess,
I will have to go further into this, as someone has to speak up
for this excellent company that is perceived by outsiders as another
“Tyco.” You will get
the truth here. editor ) --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Merrill Lynch Enters the Internet Fray Merrill Lynch Launches Online Credit Application for Small and Midsize Businesses Merrill Lynch Tuesday announced the launch of a new web-based platform, FinanceCenterTM, which allows business owners to apply for credit directly online. CIT Offering of $1.07 Billion Lease Security Offering of Lease Security By REUTERS IT Group, a unit of Tyco International Ltd., has issued preliminary price talk for a roughly $1.07 billion equipment lease receivables asset- backed security, syndicate sources said yesterday. The transaction is expected to be priced by tomorrow. The equipment leases that will be supporting the deal were originated by CIT. Deutsche Bank Securities is lead manager on the transaction, while Banc of America Securities, Banc One Capital Markets, Barclays Capital, J. P. Morgan and Wachovia Securities are the co-managers. _________________________________________________________________________ Post office to cut 8,000 more workers, still faces major deficit By Randolph E. Schmid, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) More than 8,000 additional full-time jobs will be cut by the Postal Service this year as the agency struggles to contain its losses in the face of declining business. Postmaster General John Potter said Tuesday that a total of 20,000 career positions are being eliminated this year, all through attrition. About 11,800 positions have been cut so far. With about 750,000 employees, the post office has the nation's second-largest civilian work force after the Arkansas-based retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Potter told the Postal Service's governing board that financial managers are projecting a loss of $1.5 billion for the fiscal year that ends in September. Previous loss projections for this year have ranged as high as $4.5 billion. The post office is facing an unprecedented drop in business that began last year with the recession. It posted a $1.7 billion loss last year. Potter said mail volume for this year is expected to be 6 billion items fewer than last year, when the post office delivered 207.5 billion pieces. That was down from 207.8 billion the year before. The postal rate increase scheduled for June 30 is expected to boost income for the agency first-class stamps will rise 3 cents to 37 cents. In addition to the cuts in personnel, the agency has reduced spending and frozen most construction projects, helping hold the losses to the now anticipated $1.5 billion. In addition to falling mail volume, the Sept. 11 attacks followed by the anthrax-by- mail terrorism have cost the agency hundreds of millions of dollars. And it is now engaged in a costly search for whoever is placing bombs in rural curbside mailboxes. While Congress voted $500 million to assist in coping with the anthrax attacks and initiating efforts to prevent such future contamination, the post office does not receive tax money for its operations. It is expected to pay its own way from postage collected, making a profit in some years and posting a loss in others. Also Tuesday, postal chief technology officer Charles Bravo told the board that the agency is modernizing its internal computer systems, a change that should save as much as $200 million over five years. Bravo said the current 85 local computer help desks will be consolidated into one central location; 270 software packages used across the agency are being reduced to 60; 13,000 computer servers will be reduced to 1,500; and some 800 contractor positions are being cut. And the board approved expanded use of Postal One, a computer system that eliminates paperwork in the acceptance, handling and billing for bulk business mail. The system has been tested with 71 major mailers and will now be expanded to other businesses. On the Net: Postal Service: http://www.usps.com #### ######################################################
#### ############################################### U.S. Internet Traffic Experiences Annual Growth of 100%, But Just 17% Revenue Growth
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. Monthly Internet traffic in the U.S. now stands at around 100 Petabytes per month -- more than double the volume from the entire nation's long-distance voice calls. According to RHK's new Ryan Perspective report Internet Traffic Soars, While Revenues Glide, Internet traffic in the United States grew at an annual rate of 100% during 2001. This represents a drop from 130% in 2000 and 160% in 1999, but an ongoing increase in the absolute volumes that backbone providers must accommodate. RHK's findings show dramatic consolidation of Internal traffic among the largest carriers, as bankruptcies take their toll of smaller service providers. A significant aspect of RHK's new research addresses the difficulties many telecom firms are having as revenue growth falls well behind the traffic surge, at 17% during 2001. Revenues-per-bit fell 45% in 2001, mainly due to intense price pressure, better utilization of higher bandwidth pipes by enterprise customers; and declines in the wholesale dial-up business as users migrate to broadband access. "Although traffic growth is still strong, it is growing at a less extreme pace than in earlier years, suggesting the Internet is following the usual curve for any maturing market," says Muayyad Al-Chalabi, director of RHK's Executive Strategic Partnership program. "The boom and bust of the dot-com era generated myths and unattainable expectations. It is important to have a realistic understanding of growth patterns, as they provide the best indication of the size of tomorrow's networks." The substantial gap between Internet traffic and revenue growth need not be a cause for concern, according to Al-Chalabi. The mismatch can be overcome if networks can offer increasingly efficient performance to counteract falling revenue-per-megabyte. This report provides recommendations to service providers, vendors and investors for determining future Internet-based business models. In quantifying present and future growth, RHK interviewed all the top backbone carriers that together carry the majority of the U.S. Internet traffic. This analysis of past and future traffic patterns included modelling access bandwidth used by businesses and residential customers, and researching the factors that drive service provider strategies. For more information on the definitions and methodologies RHK uses to quantify Internet traffic and interpret the underlying trends, visit http://networkwatch.rhk.com/ ShowAnalysis.asp?analysisId=108. This report is part of the Ryan Perspective series RHK sends to all clients worldwide. For more information about this report and other RHK services, please contact Mike Mahan in the United States at 650/737-9600; Takashi Kimura in Japan at +81.3492.1341; or George Stojsavljevic in Europe and Rest-of-Asia-Pacific at +44.1462.485440. RHK Inc. is the leading industry market research and consulting firm specializing in the analysis of advanced technologies for the global public telecommunications network. The company provides subscription services and consulting to technology vendors, service providers, and the investment community worldwide. RHK's areas of expertise include: Broadband Access, Operational Support Systems, Optical Components, Optical Networks, Packet Services, Switching & Routing, Telecom Economics, and Telecom Semiconductors. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.rhk.com.
CONTACT: RHK Inc. Lee Kurnoff, 650/737-9600 Lee_Kurnoff@rhk.com ############### ############################################# CapitalStream Selects TIBCO Software for Application Platform May 06, 2002 TIBCO Software announced that CapitalStream, a provider of commercial finance automation technology, has selected TIBCO ActiveExchange to serve as its Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Business-to-Business (B2B) integration platform. TIBCO ActiveExchange version 3.0, allows companies to effectively utilize Web Services to automate processes and transactions with other businesses over the Internet. With its implementation at CapitalStream, TIBCO ActiveExchange allows the financial company to provide real-time, message-based interconnectivity to its customers' disparate third-party and legacy systems. Customers can now have access to data spanning multiple systems and geographies. CapitalStream hosts a processing hub through which its enterprise customers conduct commercial finance transactions, such as the processing of credit cards, loans, leases and lines of credit for their customers and associates. With hundreds of customers sharing information over one hub, CapitalStream needed a platform that would allow customer systems to communicate with each other. TIBCO ActiveExchange enables CapitalStream to provide secure and accurate real-time linkage to its customers' systems, while also reducing the time and money required to establish and maintain the connections. "The financial services industry sets an extremely high standard for the timeliness and reliability of information exchanged between companies. With countless customers and partners relying on us every day, we needed a solution that would provide the integrity of our communications," said Jeffrey Dirks, president and chief operations officer of CapitalStream. "TIBCO ActiveExchange has provided us with a secure, reliable platform that allows us to offer real-time access to the information that our customers and partners need the most. Since the implementation of the TIBCO solution, our average financing processing times have been reduced from four days to four hours or less." Based on TIBCO ActiveExchange technology, CapitalStream is also launching an integration server that is being implemented in Bank of the West's more than 300 branch locations, as well as Bank Boston Fleet Capital Global Vendor Finance, spanning more than 1,000 concurrent users across five leasing divisions. "With Web Services gaining increased acceptance within the financial services community, CapitalStream turned to TIBCO for a solution that would incorporate Internet-based communications into its business framework with a minimal amount of risk," said Murat Sonmez, senior vice president for TIBCO Software. "TIBCO ActiveExchange provides the security and integrity of CapitalStream's online interactions, while also allowing them to leverage existing investments in Internet protocols and industry standards such as XML, EDI and RosettaNet. This combination of secure cross-company communication s, minimal platform maintenance and reduced downtime is enabling CapitalStream to take full advantage of Web Services, thereby remaining competitive in its industry." ### ########################################################### ________________________________________________________________ Fed policies help soften blow of recession Interest rate committee expected to hold line today Sam Zuckerman, Chronicle Economics Writer
The recession that just ended was pegged as the disaster the bursting of the Internet bubble wrought, a technology-led downturn that even monetary superhero Alan Greenspan couldn't do anything about. But Federal Reserve Chairman Greenspan and his colleagues at the nation's central bank defied the skeptics. They pushed interest rates down an unprecedented 11 times during 2001, taking the short-term cost of money to its lowest level in four decades. While that didn't reverse the tech collapse, it revved up other sectors of the economy, most notably housing and autos. The result was the mildest recession in memory. And that performance is earning Greenspan and company high marks. "The Fed gets a A," said Laurence Ball, an economist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "There were great fears about a deep recession. But they acted quickly enough so that the downturn was very mild." The Fed's interest-rate-setting committee, which meets eight times a year, convenes again today. For the third time in a row, policymakers are expected to sit on their hands, leaving the federal funds rate, the Fed's short-term benchmark, unchanged at 1.75 percent. It runs counter to the deepest instincts of a monetary policymaker -- and goes against all the lessons they teach you in central banking school -- to keep rates on the floor when the economy is growing again. But that stance sits well with experts, who say the economy is still too fragile to absorb a rate increase. "The Fed is holding to an intelligent course by not tightening prematurely, " said Tom Schlesinger, executive director of Financial Markets Center, a liberal think thank. To be sure, the Fed's final grade isn't in yet. Recent economic reports have shown that the economic recovery is losing steam. The April unemployment rate of 6 percent was the highest jobless level in eight years. And the stock market is giving back many of the gains it registered as it bounced back from its post-Sept. 11 crash. "It creates a real question going forward," said former Fed Governor Janet Yellen, now an economist at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business. "It may be that the recovery is weak." Given expectations a year or six months ago, even a weak recovery is an accomplishment. When the recession began early in 2001, pessimistic forecasters warned that the Fed would be able to do little to counter it. That's because the downturn was led by corporate America, which had loaded up on equipment, especially technology gear, during the late 1990s. That spending binge ate into earnings as fancy new e-commerce operations and other outsize investments failed to generate promised sales. When the recession hit, snakebite businesses cut back their spending drastically. And that in turn produced near-depression conditions for the companies that sold them stuff -- makers of computer and telecommunications gear, machine tools and other industrial equipment. Low interest rates can't persuade managers of idle factories and call centers to buy more equipment. Hence the doubts about the Fed's ability to revive the economy. What the skeptics failed to see though was the sensitivity of other sectors of the economy to low rates. Sales of homes and cars broke records, an unheard of development in an economic slump. "This is the first time we've ever seen the housing sector plow forward in a technical recession," said Bruce Karatz, chairman and chief executive of KB Home, the giant Los Angeles residential construction company. What's more, low interest rates let homeowners tap into the rising value of their properties by refinancing their mortgages. Home loans added about $50 billion to consumer spending last year, lifting economic growth by 0.5 percent, said Doug Duncan, chief economist of the Mortgage Bankers Association. In other words, while Greenspan couldn't solve the problem of the crash in business spending, he was able to finesse it. "The Fed has not succeeded in turning around the capital spending bust," Yellen said. "What the Fed did succeed in doing was to hold other forms of spending at high levels, which compensated for the capital spending bust." E-mail Sam Zuckerman at szuckerman@sfchronicle.com. ############# ################################################# Actual Federal Reserve Press Release The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to keep its target for the federal funds rate unchanged at 1 3/4 percent. The information that has become available since the last meeting of the Committee confirms that economic activity has been receiving considerable upward impetus from a marked swing in inventory investment. Nonetheless, the degree of the strengthening in final demand over coming quarters, an essential element in sustained economic expansion, is still uncertain. In these circumstances, although the stance of monetary policy is currently accommodative, the Committee believes that, for the foreseeable future, against the background of its long run goals of price stability and sustainable economic growth and of the information currently available, the risks are balanced with respect to the prospects for both goals. Voting for the FOMC monetary policy action were: Alan Greenspan, Chairman; William J. McDonough, Vice Chairman; Susan S. Bies; Roger W. Ferguson, Jr.; Edward M. Gramlich; Jerry L. Jordan; Robert D. McTeer, Jr.; Mark W. Olson; Anthony M. Santomero, and Gary H. Stern. Voting against the action: none. #### ######################################### Office vacancy climbs to 19% in SF Bay Area By K. Oanh Ha San Jose Mercury News Bay Area commercial real estate has continued to nose-dive this year, logging the highest office vacancy rates in more than a decade and causing rents to slide steeply. The overall office vacancy rate reached 19 percent in the first quarter of 2002 -- higher than during the 1990-91 recession, according to a report by BT Commercial Real Estate. That compares with a vacancy rate of 16.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2001 and 7.6 percent rate in the first quarter of 2001. Certain areas have been harder hit than others. More than a quarter of the office space in San Mateo County -- 26.4 percent -- is empty. San Francisco, with its decimated South of Market area, had a first- quarter vacancy rate of 19.8 percent. ``We've seen the bottom of the economy,'' said BT Commercial managing partner Drew Arvay. ``What I'm not sure about is whether we've seen the full purge of real estate.'' Businesses have been shedding office buildings, as well as employees, to cut costs in the downturn. Forty percent of the vacant office space in the Bay Area is being offered for sublease by companies that no longer need it, said Arvay. There is nearly 40 million square feet of vacant office space in the Bay Area, according to the BT Commercial report that looked at Santa Clara, San Mateo and San Francisco counties and parts of the East Bay. In Santa Clara County, a little more than 10 million square feet of offices are empty -- the rough equivalent of all the office space in Palo Alto. ``It's not going to get good for a while,'' said Philip Mahoney, executive vice president at Cornish & Carey Commercial. ``The pool of tenants to take space is increasingly getting dry.'' There's also 726 football fields, or 26 million square feet, of vacant research and development space in Santa Clara County alone, according to BT Commercial. The warehouse vacancy rate in all of the Bay Area was 8.9 percent for the first quarter, up from 3.3 percent one year ago. With more offices available than ever before, rents continue to fall. Average office rents dropped 45 percent in the first quarter compared with the same quarter of last year, according to a survey by broker Grubb & Ellis. The average monthly asking price for office space was $2.53 a square foot, compared with $4.56 a year ago. That represents the largest percentage decline in at least a decade, said Colin Yasukochi, Grubb & Ellis director of research in San Francisco. The drop is so sharp because the scramble for office space during the tech boom drove up rent prices way beyond normal levels. BT Commercial found that in San Mateo County, the average rent has dropped nearly 60 percent, to $2.95 a square foot, since the height of the tech economy in 2000. Santa Clara County has seen office rents fall 54 percent since 2000, to $3.03 a square foot. Although the overall economy seems to be rebounding, some commercial real estate experts don't expect the market to recover until as far out as 2004. The ripples from the tech bust are still hitting commercial real estate, many said. It won't be until the overall market is in its second year of growth that commercial real estate will regain its balance, predicted Arvay. It all comes down to demand, which is spurred by employment growth, said Arvay and others. In the Bay Area, commercial real estate is closely pegged to venture capitalists, who invest money in new companies which then hire and rent space. ``We're going to chug along here for a while until the venture capital community starts to put in more money,'' said Mahoney of Cornish & Carey. Real estate operates on a boom-and-bust cycle, and brokers agreed it's only a matter of time before the market turns around. ``There's still a great deal of confidence in the Bay Area,'' said Yasukochi. ``It's a strong economic engine in the long term. It's not going to be a quick turnaround -- but it will turn around.'' Consumer Credit Grew $4.6B in March Reuters U.S. consumers added debt to their balance sheets at a slightly slower-than-expected pace in March, a report from the Federal Reserve Tuesday showed. The Fed said consumer credit outstanding grew by $4.6 billion to a seasonally adjusted $1.686 trillion in the month, the smallest gain since December 2001. Wall Street economists polled by Reuters had projected a gain in credit of about $6.0 billion. The figures underscore the still-tenuous stance of the U.S. consumer. While consumer spending, which makes up two-thirds of economic activity, held up decently during the recession, how it will perform during the economy's recovery is unclear. March retail sales rose only 0.2 percent. The Federal Reserve, in leaving short-term interest rates at a low 1.75 percent earlier on Tuesday, said, "The degree of the strengthening in final demand over coming quarters, an essential in sustained economic expansion, is still uncertain". In the credit report, February credit was revised downward slightly, to a $7.0 billion gain from the previously reported $7.1 billion increase. In March, revolving credit—debt linked to credit and charge cards—grew by $1.5 billion, its slowest pace since December 2001. Nonrevolving debt, including closed-end loans for cars, education expenses, recreational vehicles, boats and vacations, grew by $3.1 billion. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday ------ Odds and Ends CMC Huge Response---Not There had to be a HUGE response to Ty Hanson's e-mail. Why are you not printing ALL the responses?. Just wondering.
(anonymous) ( Sorry, only two responses. CMC must be “old news.” We received one signed, which we printed. The other one was “anonymous,” like this one, but since the person did not sign it, we did not print their opinion... editor ). ---- Application Only As far as App. only deals, ask anyone who has been lending for 40 years and they will tell you they have never gotten comfortable with it. I am the resident credit Guru here and we are often looking for a way to put the seal of approval on a good deal with a bad score. We all know how many bureaus we see where the score should be 100 points higher because we have a borrower with a 7 figure income, no derogs but plenty of inquiries and lots of credit outstanding. We all see a lot of errors-legitimate ones-and the famous last payment on a car lease for example when there was an argument over excess mileage or wear & tear. Or someone is shopping a car loan or refinancing a mortgage. Some of the reasons for low scores are downright silly while some guy with 2 credit cards with small balances and a 750 FICO because he's had them for 8 years, wants to finance $250,000.00 worth of equipment for a start-up. Point is, automated scoring is destined to disappoint at both ends of the spectrum from time to time. ----- Dear Uncle Kit:
Although this Julian fellow and I do share a few common traits; e.g., we are both chick-magnets and we both need to be taken out after drinking too much, he is sadly mistaken if he is confusing us for each other. By the way, I have decided against the name "Archie." The choices of a new name have been boiled down to the following:
1. Mack (in honor of Rita's family - the McClain's) 2. Linus Dirnberger 3. Big Boy 4. Special Agent Richard Reinhardt (aka Ricky) 5. Dr. Morris Fishbein
Of course, there were some others that I vetoed because they were silly.
Love,
Your nephew Archie, er, I mean, Big Boy http://www.keystoneleasing.com/newkid.html ---- Las Vegas Conference A thank you from Joanie Dalton and myself from UAEL and EAEL to all who attended the joint conference in Las Vegas. We believe everyone benefited from either the informative workshops, conversations in the hallways with one's peers, seeing the newest in technology from our exhibitors or networking at the social events. We want to thank our gracious sponsors. It was an exciting event to work on and to experience. And, if you missed this important conference--I want to encourage you to attend any of the upcoming association conferences still to be held in 2002. The contacts you will make will benefit you for years to come. And perhaps if you feel you have nothing to gain yourself, you can impart knowledge to someone just starting out. Again, Thanks, Alison Pryor,Amfnyc@aol.com Executive Director of EAEL ----- Regarding: Special: Tax Receipts--- As paper piles up, which do you keep? If your readers are interested in a Records Retention Guide for their home or office, please direct them to our website at www.edwinsigel.com. On our homepage is an icon for 'TaxQuikGuide'. This will lead them to another page where they can find more information. Shari L. Lipski, CLP Marketing Manager Edwin C. Sigel, Ltd. Lease Portfolio Managers & CPA's slipski@edwinsigel.com 800-826-7070 ext. 111 847-291-1190 Fax Tyco Stock Quote: http://www.nyse.com/marketinfo/marketinfo.html?sym=TYC ________________________________________________________________________ "World News Tonight With Peter Jennings" Wins the Week in Total Viewers For Second Consecutive Week Displays Most Growth -- 18% -- in Total Viewers Vs. A Year Ago ABC's "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" was the number one evening newscast for the week with 9,490,000 Total Viewers, according to the latest Nielsen ratings. "World News Tonight" won the week with 80,000 more viewers than "NBC Nightly News." By comparison during the same week in 2001 "Nightly News" was 850,000 Total Viewers ahead of "World News Tonight." The victory marks the first time "World News Tonight" has beaten "Nightly News" in two consecutive weeks since November 2001. "World News Tonight" also experienced the most growth in Total Viewers (18%) compared to the same week a year ago. ( courtesy of the Drudge Report ) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zagat restaurant surveys go online By Associated Press, NEW YORK (AP) The ritual is all too familiar to restaurant lovers: Filling out long paper questionnaires to rate eateries by food, decor and service. The payback is a free Zagat survey in the mail, and perhaps the greater honor of having a pithy remark quoted in the restaurant guides. This year, however, the Zagats are going online. Tim Zagat, who founded the guides with his wife Nina, says the move should save thousands of dollars and speed up the process of crunching the data and getting the guides out. ''The only people we worry about are people like me, who are a little retarded when it comes to computers,'' Zagat said in an interview. ''But fortunately nearly every family has someone who can figure out how to use one.'' The New York guide, the flagship operation of the Zagat empire, began accepting online questionnaires this week, and will continue to take them until June 16, Zagat said. Last year, the New York guide took in about 20,000 paper surveys and 10,000 electronic ones. Zagat has been experimenting with using online questionnaires for the past three years to supplement the paper surveys, but this year all 70 restaurant guides and other guides such as a hotel survey will do their polling electronically. On the Net: |
|
