Fleet management and leasing company Siemens Motor Contracts
(SMC) has closed to new business as of mid-December.
The lessor, a division of Siemens Financial Services (SFS), also
provided finance for the fleet customers of manufacturers SsangYong
and Kia before the decision was made to stop accepting new
business.
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A spokesperson for Kia said that ALD Automotive has temporarily
filled SMC’s role until the end of January, while the manufacturer
is considering bids from “four or five” lessors to take over the
fleet finance relationship, with a decision to be announced at the
end of the month.
A SsangYong spokesman said: “It’s frustrating that Siemens has
stopped providing this business.
“Meanwhile, the contract hire programme that SsangYong put
together for dealers in 2008 is not dependent on Siemens, so other
partners are being used. Koelliker UK [SsangYong’s UK distributor]
is reviewing the situation and will probably make an announcement
about the future in due course.”
A spokesman for Siemens said: “We’re in a volatile financial
situation, with significant recessionary pressures existing, and we
are always reviewing how our structure is placed to handle
challenges. SMC was not at the core of our organisation.”
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By GlobalDataHe added that SFS “is not selling the [SMC] portfolio”, which
will be “managed and run to a conclusion as and when agreements
finish”.
Nor was the decision prompted by an edict from the finance
company’s ultimate parent Siemens to focus on financing its own
products, the Siemens spokesman emphasised. “Point-of-sale vendor
finance, broker business and public sector business are at the core
of SFS’s operations,” he said.
In addition to halting new business at SMC, a funfair equipment
leasing business, Siemens Bellevue Finance Ltd, is to close its
book. Both businesses were originally acquired by SFS when it
bought financial services provider Broadcastle in 2005.
Staff redundancies as a result of the decision have not been
ruled out, although employees are “in consultation negotiations and
we will initially look to place them in SFS or within Siemens where
appropriate,” said the spokesman.
