Liberty is delighted to have won Top Classic & Supercar Funder at this year’s Leasing World Awards
Liberty Leasing have been financing all types of Prestige, Classic & Sports cars for over 15 years. Less than 10 years ago there were only a handful of companies offering finance on classic cars, so we consider ourselves to be a forerunner and have built vast experience in this sector.
Allan Clegg, Managing Director had the below to say about the win:
“We are absolutely delighted to have won ‘Top Classic and Supercar Funder’ at this year’s Leasing World awards. We were up against strong competition in this awards first year in the shape of Hampshire Trust Bank, Aldermore Business Finance, Oracle, Renaissance Asset Finance and Metro Bank.
The award is great recognition for us and a real achievement especially bearing in mind some of the strong competition in this category! The award reflects the great team effort and hard work that goes into making Liberty a success.”
Twitter Wall Winner #LWAwards18
We’re pleased to announce the winner of the best Twitter Wall post goes Trevor Pirie, Operations Director at Corporate Asset Solutions for his humorous tweet of his colleague Sean Oliver. Trevor will be receiving a Bollinger Gift Case! (Thanks to Steve and Jackie Moody from SKM Asset Finance for kindly posting the tweet on Trevor’s behalf)
Why did Liberty enter the Top Classic & Supercar Funder Award?
During the recession we witnessed decreases in demand across all industry sectors. However, at this time demand grew for second tier funders as some major players exited the market or reduced their offering. Many businesses once considered ‘blue chip’ found themselves needing a more flexible or asset-based approach from finance companies. Understandably, we also saw demand for refinance increase.
What this meant for us was that we were free to diversify into sectors where demand was higher. One example of this was within Prestige & Sports car finance where high-value cars were seen by many as a frivolous purchase, so outside of captive dealer funding it was difficult to obtain finance on cars costing over £50,000 (and still is to this day). We saw this as an opportunity as desirable cars always maintain a resale value. We also witnessed the appetite for classic car finance increase exponentially from 2010 as investors and collectors saw average classic car values increase by 500% in 10 years. This made the classic car market one worthwhile exploring further and lend when others wouldn’t.
Liberty has exhibited at various events such as The London Classic Car Show as well as sponsoring the FRS Arrow Team for four years running. Liberty have been lead sponsor of the “Celebration of Speed” event for two years running, which is a black tie dinner to celebrate the Festival of Speed at Goodwood later hosted by respected motorsport television presenter, Suzi Perry. As one of the first in our industry to offer classic car finance, we now have a wealth of experience and contacts in this industry which gives our clients a great deal of comfort when making these investments. It’s worth mentioning that some of Liberty’s largest deals (up to £2.5m) have been for Classic & Super Cars and is very much a niche market we are proud to occupy. Also, as of 2018 Prestige, Sports and Classic Car finance now account for almost 50% of our portfolio.
Lewis Banford, Area Manager who has been with the business since 2005, starting as a Trainee Account Manager provides his insight having worked with clients within the classic and super car markets since then
“As I see it Liberty was somewhat of a pioneer of classic car finance in the sense we were offering it at a time when many wouldn’t. Over ten years ago we saw an opportunity within the classic car market as many of the lenders simply did not understand the asset or how to value them.
We were more than happy to enter this market due to the fact it attracted a particular calibre of client whether that be the car enthusiast or a high net worth individual looking to add to their collection. Our personal approach and focus on service seemed to be appreciated in this sector and has helped grow our client base by recommendation. Classic cars are well-publicised as a good investment and are widely regarded as an appreciating asset, which is different to most of the assets we finance. It’s also worth mentioning that we’ve always been happy to deal with a vendor selling a classic car as well as dealers providing we can do the due diligence and appropriate checks on the vehicle. We are fortunate now to have our own in-house asset team which has helped streamline this process.
What I personally see as a real benefit to clients is that a classic car is an investment you can actually enjoy and as a result they are genuinely treated with a great deal of respect and affection.
Being a car enthusiast myself it makes for easy conversation with my clients from an account management perspective. To be recognised as a specialist within this area would be fantastic but I speak for myself and my colleagues when I say that classic car finance is one of the most interesting and enjoyable parts of my job and has been for over 10 years and I hope to continue serving this industry.”
