CIT opens $20m office in Dublin

Barry O'Halloran

New York-listed leasing and commercial finance group CIT has invested up to $20 million (€17.4 million) in centralising its European operations in a facility in the Republic, the firm said yesterday.

The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, last night performed the official opening of CIT's new European base in Blackrock, Co Dublin. The group employs 235 people there, but Mr Terry Kelleher, managing director, CIT Europe, predicted yesterday that staff numbers would grow to more than 300 within a year.

He said the Blackrock HQ represented an investment of $10- $20 million for the firm. CIT completed the transfer of its operations from a number of continental locations, including Brussels, Frankfurt, the UK, Paris and Milan to Blackrock in October.

CIT provides leasing, factoring and other finance to businesses and consumers worldwide. It is headquartered in New York. Its results for the quarter ended September 30th, show it had $49.3 million of assets under management.

The group deals in everything from office equipment to aircraft and trains, while the value of individual assets under management ranges from $500 to $30 million.

In Europe, CIT's speciality finance unit provides clients with a mixture of commercial leases and consumer loans.

The size of its portfolio is about $1 billion. The European operation will be run from Dublin and will deal in assets valued at $1,000 to $30,000. It has partnerships with a number of equipment vendors, including Dell UK and Ireland.

Mr Kelleher said yesterday that 80 per cent of staff at the Dublin office were on an average salary of €40,000 a year.