Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/142338
financespecial use your assets Paul McCann, managing director of Corporate Lending for GE Capital Australia and NZ talks business growth and asset based lending. Q. How long have you been with GE? A. I've been in multiple roles at GE for five years and I've been the managing director of Corporate Finance since September 2011. Q. What do you like most about the industry? A. I've been in the industry in excess of 20 years, the whole time working in banking and finance. I love seeing clients succeed. Q. Tell me about GE Capital and what the business does … A. GE Capital's commercial offering comprises the Corporate Finance business, which I lead, as well as a leading equipment finance business, a fleet finance business, and a floor plan finance business. We touch one in five businesses in Australia in the mid-market, lending to customers that have a revenue profile of between $10 million and $250 million. GE Capital is also the largest consumer credit card issuer in Australia, one of the largest consumer credit insurers and offers personal loans through the GE Money branch network and online. Q. What is it that sets GE Capital apart from other similar institutions? A. I believe strongly that at GE Capital we take the time to invest in our clients. We see our clients as partners, rather than just being a single point lender to them. I think we bring the totality of our industrial heritage, our engineering and manufacturing background – so we're not just bankers per se. We bring these learnings to the table, as well as partnering with our clients from a financing perspective. Q. Tell me about GE Capital's recent acquisition … A. We, the corporate finance business have recently acquired Allianz Finance, a leading debtor finance business. The acquisition gives us product breadth, systems capability and an experienced debtor finance team. We now estimate that we have circa 20 per cent of the market and we have amazing growth aspirations – not only for the sector but also our role in that sector. Over the next two to three years we want to double the size of our business, not only in asset based lending, but equally, debtor finance. Q. Let's talk asset based lending. What is it? A. Asset based lending is in its infancy here in the Australian market, compared with the US where it is a deep, liquid market. Debtor finance is a subset of asset based lending, and is probably the form of asset based lending most known in our market. Asset based loans are typically structured as a secured revolving line 47