The changing role of the agent

Recent instructions in the consumer electronics and motor retail trades have highlighted how the role of the Machinery & Business Assets agent and valuer has changed. When I started in this job, a longer number of years ago than I care to remember, life in Plant and Machinery seemed relatively straight forward.

 

When instructed on a corporate recovery assignment, we would provide an inventory for the sales memorandum along with a valuation and then left the practitioner to his own devices for a period.  Sometimes, if it was a quality business, it sold on. If not, we then sold the plant and machinery assets piecemeal by traditional methods; auction, tender or private treaty.

 

As technology has advanced, so the world has suddenly become a much smaller place and disposals are now mainly dealt with by way of online auctions.  At a recent online auction we had bidders from all over the world, with almost 50 per cent of the items going to purchasers from as far away as North America and South East Asia.  Despite the current financial uncertainty, it is encouraging to see the level of interest and the prices obtained.

 

Over the past decade, credit has become easier to obtain, interest rates have been low and, with asset based lenders coming into the market, more and more struggling companies have been re-financed.  As a result, the number of disposals we carry out has reduced and as a business, we have had to evolve.  For example, our role in asset management has increased.  This includes asset tracking and identification, collection and storage, return to financiers and managing the phased trading out of stock following closure.

 

Recently we have been involved in major assignments in the motor trade and retail sectors dealing with large stocks of vehicles and consumer related products.  This is a far cry from the type of assets we dealt with in the 80’s and early 90’s, which were still largely industrial assets from the manufacturing sector.  However, large scale manufacture has mostly relocated from the UK to Eastern Europe and South East Asia and this has created new opportunities.  There’s  still a population of approximately 60 million in the UK – therefore vast amounts of consumer goods are imported and often these are financed by the asset based lenders and banks.

 

Even though their manufacturing facilities are overseas, companies based in the UK may have intangible assets and these need to be valued – another diverse service now offered by corporate services division of Sanderson Weatherall.

 

Roy Tubman, Director, Corporate Services, Manchester

Tel 0161 615 7063