Attractive location and competitive costs lure CIT

Believe it or not, US businesses are looking at Europe and drooling. At least, that's the view of Jeff Peek, president and chief operations officer of global commercial finance operation CIT Group.

"In the US, people look at Europe and they see a market of 300-400 million and they start to drool," he says. "That's a bigger market than the US, and they want to get in there."

New York-listed CIT this week formally opened its European headquarters in Blackrock, Co Dublin. Last month, the company finished the process of centralising its European operations in this State.

It has hired 235 staff and believes its employment levels will top 300 within the year.

Mr Peek, who joined CIT two months ago after a career in the senior echelons of Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse First Boston, says it is a good place to begin a cohesive drive to develop its business on the continent.

"Blackrock looks to me like a very successful launch pad," he remarks.

CIT's Blackrock-based workforce breaks down as 60 per cent Irish and 40 per cent European.

The latter group were hired for their knowledge of local markets as much for their language skills. In addition, CIT has more than 100 salespeople working on the ground throughout Europe.

It employs 6,000 people across the world. Its ultimate headquarters is in New York and it also has offices in New Jersey.

The group is not necessarily breaking new ground. It had offices in many continental countries, largely in capital cities that sound a lot more attractive than Dublin, such as Madrid, Paris and Stockholm.

Two years ago, however, the group decided its European operations could best be developed by centralisation, and that Ireland was the best place to do it.

CIT chose this State because the skills were available and because the European workers they needed regarded Dublin as an attractive place to live.

The company also singled out the State's association with the technology industry, its high standard of education and the fact that it is English-speaking as key factors in choosing it as a base.

The group is quick to emphasise that Blackrock will be the hub of its European operations, and not simply a call centre.

More than 80 per cent of the workers have third-level qualifications, the staff include lawyers and accountants, and the average salary will be €40,000 a year.

The company also maintains that congestion, poor infrastructure and high property prices, all of which are said to be contributing to the capital's dwindling competitiveness, did not cause it any problems. In fact, earlier this week, it described costs here as "competitive".

Its total investment in the Republic comes to about $20 million (€17.4 million).

Mr Peek's colleague and managing director of the European operation, Irishman Mr Terry Kelleher, points out that centralisation allows them to offer consistency across the full range of their products, something demanded by their clients, most of whom are trading in a number of countries.

The Blackrock/European division is part of CIT's speciality finance business unit.

From there, CIT will provide finance to business clients purchasing technology and other equipment. By and large, it does this by taking ownership of the assets and leasing them to the buyer.

Its European portfolio of assets is worth more than $1 billion. As a whole, the group had $49.3 billion in assets under its management worldwide at the end of September. The value of CIT's individual financing deals can be worth anything from $500 to $30 million, as it is involved in everything from consumer loans to aircraft leasing. The optimum value of those done by its European operations is $1,000-$30,000.

In Europe, it has strategic relationships with a number of companies that allow it to provide finance to its customers. These include computer manufacturer Dell, communications networks specialist Avaya and gym equipment supplier Life Fitness. It is negotiating with a number of potential new partners.

CIT relies on the capital markets for its own financing, essentially borrowing tranches of cash through bond issues.

It can raise $8-$10 billion in the course of a year in this fashion.

Mr Peek says its own debt-to-assets ratio is 90 per cent, an estimate borne out by its results for the three months to the end of September.

That balance sheet shows it had total liabilities of close to $40.3 billion, as against assets of $49.3 billion. Of this, $34 billion was debt, mainly in the form of various loan notes, with smaller amounts due to factoring clients and other liabilities.

Mr Peek says this level of gearing is average for a business such as CIT. He also points out that the company has an asset-to-equity ratio of 10 to one- its assets are worth 10 times its shares. Risk management is a key concern for the group. Central to this is the fact that the money it lends to clients is secured against a related asset.

The company also considers other factors, including how much it is prepared to loan against an individual asset and where it is in the economic cycle. Mr Peek says it has a budget of $6 billion from which it can provide loans in the current quarter.

At least some of that will be provided via Blackrock to European clients. CIT is not put off by the fact that the continent's economy looks rather soft these days.

"We would like to see it growing faster," Mr Peek says. "But in our business, we would not have much to do with influencing it. That is just the hand that you are dealt."