TRUCK&FLEET CONFERENCE UAE
FLEET FINANCE: ARE WE MAKING PROGRESS?
Patrick Ger Regan, founder, SAMA Capital Equipment Management, says that flexibility is needed to make the most of changes to financing in the UAE Most of the recent regulatory changes that have happened in the UAE over the last 14 months, and during the Covid-19 period have mostly kept under the radar. You may have read about them, but how do these impact your business?” Asks Patrick Ger Regan, managing director and founder, SAMA Capital Equipment Management. Regan, an advisor of regulatory changes to equipment financing in the UAE, recently started the business having left the banking and finance sector with the “objective of raising liquidity in the market by finding routes for equipment and vehicles” to get 22 JULY 2021
into, what he defines as secondary global markets. He has also developed a corporate financing model, he says, that integrates with distributors and OEMS to support their fleet and contractors through the maze of debt financing and equity releasing when a project or lease term ends. He starts with some advice for those supplying the market: “When an OEM or distributor meets their customers, the key themes they need to be addressing are on how liquidity is impacting the business, whether they’re struggling or whether they’re flying.” Having departed his role in equipment financing for a major UAE bank, Regan
It’s not a case of bounce a cheque, go to court and shut the company down”
says SAMA is already partnering with banks, financial companies and leasing companies to look at ageing or stressed assets and recovery, as well as debt management, repossession, liquidations. This may sound intimidating like finance jargon to those buying or leasing equipment and vehicles, but Regan hopes that changes in the market can protect the complete chain of businesses involved in the sector – if they understand how to use them. “It’s all part of the UAE regulation that’s being imparted over the last 12 months. It has changed the way we go about doing business,” he explains. meconstructionnews.com
