58 l May 2014
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industrytalk
A sticksman of some repute, Fineline’s Gareth Wilding has just snared the company’s top job. He’s got a hit deal for Dave Robinson, too
FINELINE MEDIA Finance’s sales and marketing director Gareth Wilding has just been appointed to head up the whole of Five Arrows Leasing Limited (FAL). Owned by the much bigger Rothschild banking group, FAL, with a staff of around 20, services leasing and asset fi nance in the IT and veterinary markets, as well as the broadcast, studio and live sound world familiar to Fineline. While Wilding is now responsible for all three divisions, and is charged by Rothschild with expanding the business, he has a very particular message to proselytise to the PA rental market. “The Regional Growth Fund is an extra feather in our cap,” says the sometime drummer with soul band Bodkin Lane.
The Regional Growth what? The government, over the last few years, has created something called the Regional Growth Fund: £4.2 billion allocated for assistance in investment and growth for small-to medium enterprises (SMEs). It also enables SMEs to borrow money – if the government can provide additional stimulus by providing deposits for loans, then the approved funders will look on SMEs more favourably. There’s been a lot in the press reporting that banks have been reluctant to support certain businesses, as you know.
The criteria to qualify for an RGF grant is subject to job creation and security, as determined by an audit by the BIS (the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills). Ten thousand pounds, or any part therefore, of a grant, has to create or secure a job. That’s the only real restriction. So, if you are looking for a grant for £25,000, you have to create or secure three jobs. Companies can apply for a grant of up to £1 million – but of course, then they would have to provide 100 jobs and borrow £5 million! This is only in England, too, because Wales and Scotland have their own initiatives, and it’s got to be outside of London.
Return on investment (ROI) is a big deal in the live sound industry. I know that some loudspeaker gear will probably be worth more in fi ve years’ time than the price being paid for them now, because I’ve seen it happen. The good thing about this business, the kit is all fl ightcased, it’s all looked after and properly maintained. Line arrays are bulletproof as far as we are concerned, as long as there is the right badge on the side.
Are companies such as Fineline essential to the longevity of our industry?
There will always be someone else to fund the money – for instance manufacturers and their dealer channel, who have to shift the gear they build, might offer extended credit terms for customers and effectively become banks. This has happened a lot recently in Ireland. I don’t think we are
Drumming up business
Rothschild/Five Arrows had to apply to be part of the RGF initiative?
Yes, it’s taken about a year to satisfy all the criteria. Now we have access to a multi- million pound grant pot. The message from government is that they want this money to be distributed, so even if SMEs are unsure whether they qualify, they should contact us. I believe this could be a key product for the live events industry, in a big way. A lot of PA rental companies are regionally based, making six-fi gure sum investments in line array systems. I see the RGF as an ideal opportunity for them to get some free money to aid their growth. In fact, we have just completed our fi rst deal: a major seller has supplied a brand-new line array to a regionally based hire company, for about £100,000.
Let’s talk about the broader role of what you do.
Rothschild is a deposit-taking bank, which is where our funding
comes from. With our own money, we make all the decisions, and our underwriting process is not reliant on someone else dictating the terms. Fineline’s primary approach is to fund the assets. So, what we really do is quantify the level of risk we are underwriting. The money we lend is repaid over an agreed period of time,
values will align, at which point we are secure within our asset. What we at Fineline are doing, essentially, is underwriting that gap beforehand, and how long it takes to mitigate that gap.
Therefore, if something goes wrong with the deal but that ‘mitigation point’ has been
The message from government is that they want this money to be distributed. I believe this could be a key product for the live events industry, in a big way” Gareth Wilding
whereby the balance outstanding is coming down. At the same time, the value of the asset is depreciating. We recognise that the majority of the assets that we fund – especially equipment in the live market – is depreciating at a slower rate than the fi nance is being repaid. At some point during our agreement, the two
reached, as long as you can sell the kit, then everyone’s happy? As long we can get the goods back – because that’s our main security – we can usually clear any outstanding balances and obligations. Our perception of the risk in our assets is very different to a traditional bank or fi nance company.
irreplaceable, but we have a lot of key customers who would miss us if we were not here and who rely on us to provide a service. We enable businesses to grow at a faster pace – we are making the service more streamlined and easier. And everyone wants to do business ‘easy’. In that respect, we are a critical factor.
Do you know a fi rm of bruisers? [Laughs] No, but I’m sure it wouldn’t take me long to fi nd one! I learned a couple of skills from a repossession agent I knew when I started out, some 26-odd years ago. One involved a Jag that was up on bricks, hemmed in by two Transit vans. They broke into the vans, moved them apart, got four wheels and tyres from a local breaker’s yard, put them on the Jag, drove the Jag away and put the vans back, all in the dead of night, leaving the guy who owed them to work it out. That was in a previous life, of course.
Full disclosure here: we play in the same soul band, Bodkin Lane. How did you end up playing drums?
I was always banging stuff as a kid. I got a kiddie’s drumkit for Christmas when I was fi ve, started having lessons at 12 and my fi rst proper kit at 13. The neighbours weren’t keen, though. One day, without any forewarning or previous complaints, they presented my mum with a petition and that was the end of my practising at home.
www.fi neline.co.uk
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