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1.
As Basel II Advances, Impact on Leasing Remains Unclear
The
Basel Committee
struck an accord on major issues on May 11, 2004, setting the
groundwork for final negotiations of Basel II by the end of June. For the leasing industry, these agreements only accentuate the need for continuing analysis of the impact of Basel II. A
new advisory group formed by the
Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (EL&FF) will study the impact of Basel II on leasing products and make new resources available to understand and contend with Basel II. See:
Basel II Accord Resource
Home page of EL&FF.
The essential questions for leasing are whether and to what extent Basel II will affect bank and non-bank leasing organizations and their products. Compliance with Basel II requires a substantial capital investment. It will potentially impact pricing, lease product offerings, best practices in operating a leasing business, required technology and tracking systems and new levels of balance sheet capital.
Background on the Basel Accords
In 1988 the Basel Capital Accord (Original Accord) established global standards for minimum capital adequacy requirements worldwide for affected banks. The Original Accord, often called Basel I, affects many U.S. banks. The amount of capital set aside can increase or decrease pricing of bank financial products and limit exposure to certain credit risks (that is, companies using credit extended by the banks).
Basel II, which will eventually replace the Original Accord, creates a more flexible and comprehensive framework for capital regulation and will have an impact on worldwide bank competition. Basel II consists of three mutually reinforcing pillars: (1) minimum capital requirements, (2) supervisory review of capital adequacy, and (3) market discipline.
Under Basel II, the minimum required ratio of 8 percent (capital/risk) will not change from the Original Accord. The modifications in Basel II occur in the definition of risk-weighted assets, which generally refers to the methods used to measure the risks faced by banks. The new approach for calculating risk-weighted assets would improve the risk assessments by banks. As a result, their capital ratios should be more meaningful. More sophisticated banks could experience a reduction in required capital. Less sophisticated banks could face higher capital requirements. See:
U.S. Banks Worry About Impact of Latest Basel Accord (Business Leasing News June 2003).
Financial Organizations Impacted
Basel II may also have an impact on equipment leasing companies regardless of their classifications as banking or non-banking institutions. The first question each leasing business must consider is whether it must comply with Basel II. Basel II directly impacts 10 to 20 of the largest internationally active U.S. banks and requires them to implement the "standardized" and "foundation internal ratings-based (IRB) ratings" provisions starting in January 2007. However, non-regulated financial institutions with regulated European subsidiaries may also need to analyze possible compliance with Basel II.
*Tip: U.S. financial institutions that intend to operate in Europe should consider the impact on new leasing operations. It is conceivable that leasing companies not strictly subject to Basel II may nonetheless encounter pressure to comply with Basel II. For a summary of the potential impacts of Basel II on leasing, see:
Basel II Means Big Changes--It’s Going to Affect Your Business,
Monitor at pages 8-13 (Nov./Dec. 2003)
Leasing Products Impacted
According to a recent press release issued by the
Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation, Basel II will tend to impact lease products that contain an element of residual value risk. Each Basel II compliant leasing organization will need to set aside on its balance sheet adequate capital to mitigate the residual risk. Leases without residual value risk should be less affected by Basel II. The less affected transactions may include: (1) TRAC leases or split TRAC leases, (2) dollar-out leases, (3) bargain purchase option leases and other capital leases, (4) sale/leasebacks, (5) municipal leases and (6) first amendment leases.
By contrast, the following leases may be more severely impacted depending on future Basel II Committee releases: (1) leveraged lease, (2) fair market value lease, (3) synthetic lease and (4) short term rental.
*Warning: In each transaction, the specific terms and conditions in the agreements may alter the level of capital adequacy or the determination of whether the transaction escapes capital requirements under Basel II. The methodology and calculation of setting aside capital is very complex. Each leasing company, leasing bank subsidiary or other financial institution will individually determine how to set aside capital for itself or as part of a larger banker/financial institution. See:
Consensus achieved on Basil II proposals at page 9 (May 11, 2004).
Amount of Capital Required
According to the EL&FF for all Basel II compliant leasing companies, the
primary factors that will determine the level of capital to be maintained on the balance sheet by financial product are:
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Incorporation status of the financial institution;
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Advance type—retail or corporate exposure; and
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Finance product type—fully amortizing credit risk product or residual value based product with credit and residual value risk.
Pillar One, Minimum Capital Requirements, of Basel II, will partially determine the amount of capital, but the determination will be influenced by whether the exposure is considered a credit risk only or a credit and residual value risk.
More Questions Than Answers
At the moment, the largest internationally active banks in the U.S. have probably already done substantial work to understand and even alter the terms of Basel II, which has been highly controversial among U.S. banks. For other financial institutions, including lessors doing business or expecting to begin businesses in Europe, Basel II produces more questions than answers about implementing Basel II. The one known point is that Basel II will have a broad impact on most major players in the leasing business worldwide.
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2.
Appraisers Add Value From Boom to Bust
Using appraisals correctly often provides a way in and a way out of leases and loans. As the economy continues to rebound, determining the value of equipment or other collateral supports the creditworthiness of the lessee or borrower, validates lease and loan pricing and helps establish residual assumptions. Appraisals create the backbone of many transactions. Appraisers can even be used to monitor leased equipment or collateral on behalf of a lessor or lender during a lease or loan term.
The Beginning, Middle and End of a Deal
At the outset of a transaction, a lessor may offer better pricing when its appraiser determines that the equipment will retain a higher residual value (the value at the end of the lease term). An
asset-based lender depends on collateral values to support the "three Cs of credit. -- character, capacity and collateral." See:
Technology Tools Used in the Equipment Appraisal Process, by Robert S. MacDonald,
The Secured Lender online (2003). A good appraisal can help avoid unpleasant surprises for a lessor or lender that must rely on collateral value of equipment to recover maximum value for a loan or lease investment. During the life of a transaction, an appraisal firm may also track equipment locations, values and maintenance condition through a process sometimes called collateral control.
The Fundamental Tasks of an Appraiser
An appraiser may work independently or as part of the staff of a lender or lessor. Equipment lessors often hire equipment management personnel with an appraiser’s training. In conducting a typical appraisal at the beginning of a transaction, what tasks would an appraiser perform?
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Conduct proper due diligence, including (i) field inspections of the equipment locations and usage, (ii) interviews with the lessee or borrower personnel in charge of maintaining and operating the equipment, and (iii) industry and equipment research
such as discussing evaluations with appropriate manufacturers and/or equipment sales representatives.
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Obtain complete descriptions of equipment, including make, model, serial number and age as well as controls, software, attachments, engines and related equipment.
Establish values through the three accepted methodologies: (i) income, (ii) cost, and (iii) market values, which professional appraisers use under the guidance and rules of their associations such as the
Association of Machinery and Equipment Appraisers (CEA),
International Society of Appraisers (ISA),
Appraisers Association of America (AAA), and
American Society of Appraisers (ASA).
Apply current trends to appraised assets to determine the
most accurate future value.
See: Is Your Appraiser Covering All the Bases, by Craig Cappalli,
abfjournal (Jan. 2004).
*Tip:
When retaining an appraiser, perform your own due diligence on the appraiser and his or her firm. Ask about the appraiser’s (1) relevant training, (2) areas of expertise, which should include the specific leased property or collateral involved in your transaction, (3) cost of the services, (4) specific form and substance of an appraisal report, and (5) the appraisal firm’s years in business. You may need the appraiser or related services during the life of your deal. For example, you may need a collateral control service or an auctioneer (to realize residual or collateral value) at the expiration or earlier termination of a loan or lease term or on repossession of equipment. See:
Failing Credits: Minimizing Surprises & Maximizing Value,
abfjournal (March 2004).
Appraisers provide fundamental services in asset-based lending and leasing transactions. They understand the importance of their analysis of property in your deal. While their experience and skills may vary greatly, appraisers and equipment management professionals add value that should not be underestimated.
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3.
Hospitals Focus on Technology as Capital Spending Ramps Up
At $1.5 trillion last year, the United States spends twice as much on health care as Australia, Canada, England and New Zealand with mixed results in the quality of health care in the U.S. This spending results in part from the highly complex and fragmented
payment system in the U.S. that weakens the demand for healthcare services and entails high administrative costs. See:
Spending Doesn’t Give U.S. Edge in Health Care, The Wall Street Journal (S.W. Ed.), Page D:2, Col. 3 (May 5, 2004). It should not be surprising that healthcare lessors expect to book up $6.9 billion in deals this year and over $7 billion next year arising out of this huge market for health care services.
According to a PriceWaterhouseCoopers study of healthcare trends called
HealthCast Tactics: A Blueprint for the Future, many hospitals are approaching the mid-point of this decade in a severe capital crunch. Hospitals must replace or renovate aging physical structures. Similarly, physicians need new technologies to provide quality medical care. These trends create both opportunities and challenges for lessors and lenders, especially in financing software. In general, the health care market is a replacement market as older technology gives way to newer, more advanced equipment
including software.
Hospitals Plan Spending Increases
To illustrate these trends, the
Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) recently said that nearly three-fourths of hospital chief financial officers expect to increase capital spending by an average of 14 percent per year for the next five years. See:
Hospital CFOs Predict Double-Digit Increase in Capital Spending, HFMA Press Release (March 2, 2004). Hospitals must replace deteriorating fixed assets (plant, property and medical equipment), upgrade technology and increase capacity.
*Opportunity Point:
HMFA expects certain states to significantly increase their capital spending in health care. These states include: Idaho, Georgia, Florida, California, Tennessee, Alaska, Texas, Rhode Island, Arkansas and Arizona. The laggards include Louisiana, Ohio, Iowa, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming, Hawaii and South Dakota. Such general trends may affect marketing for financing or leasing deals.
Technology Spending Plays an Increasing Role
Hospital CFOs overwhelmingly indicate that technology requirements will dominate their capital spending budgets. Their capital spending will inevitably include financing software. Lessors and lenders often try to maintain a high percentage of hardware costs as compared to software costs in making lease investments. This balance enables lessors and lenders to sustain higher recoverable collateral values or even upside on sales of equipment. However, in many transactions, software costs continue to climb a percentage of total costs, presenting collateral coverage and intellectual property issues in each lease or financing transaction. See:
Still Growing and Growing… Not all opportunities in the health care market concern health care,
Equipment Leasing Today at page 21-27 (February 2004).
*Tip: As a lessor or lender, on one hand, or a lessee or borrower, on the other hand, you can enter into agreements that enable you to use software as a viable part of the collateral in a transaction. For example, as a lessor or lender, you can:
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Enter an agreement with software vendor. Try to induce the software vendor to enter into an agreement to provide the lessor or lender with essential rights to use or transfer the software. Don’t be surprised if the vendor refuses to cooperate due to the complexity of the software, the need to control of the software and/or requirements to collect additional payment from lessors or lenders for continued use of the software. As a lessor, consider becoming the licensee of the software, with the right to sublicense, provided you will accept the risks of being the licensee.
Obtain a security interest in software. As a lessor or lender, ask for a security interest in the software rights, but not the obligations of the lessee or borrower. The security interest may only amount to a lien on a license or other proprietary rights in software. See: Section 9-102(a)(75) (defining "software").
Insist on acceptance of software. To assure the software has been installed and is working, obtain a certificate of acceptance of the software from the lessee or borrower.
Create specialized remedies. Software requires different kinds of rights and remedies on default such as the exclusive right of the lessor to control the software rights and exclude the lessee from exercising those rights. For example, a lessor can ask for the right to turn software off, or un-install it from a lessee’s equipment after a default.
Establish a software escrow. For certain software vendors, lessors or lenders may be able to arrange for the deposit of certain source codes and related documentation in an escrow to use pending a lessee/borrower default or financial troubles of a vendor. Although owners or licensors of complex software may strongly resist this approach, having access to these assets under proper confidentiality agreements may save the value of equipment that is worth little without its software.
As technology equipment demand increases in the health care markets, lessors and lenders will need to structure transactions with a mixture of software and hardware assets. Lessor and lenders who understand these assets should have ample opportunity to help hospitals make a full economic recovery.
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4. BLN Case & Comment: Software Lease Fails - In Re CNB International, Inc.
In re CNB International, Inc. (CNB) is a bankruptcy case in the Western District of New York (99-11240B), 2004 WL 635093 (March 30, 2004)
arising in part out of the lessee's contention that its lease of
software did not constitute a true
lease. The case generally presented complicated questions about the validity of the lease, the standard for calculating liability of the lessee and the fair value of access to unused computer software. This Case & Comment focuses on the unique aspects of software leasing because this case illustrates an opportunity lost. What could have been a true lease of software and potential recovery in bankruptcy turned out to be a total loss for the lessor.
Facts: CNB, a manufacturer and marketer of industrial presses, machine tools and related parts, needed to acquire a new computer system. The system consisted of equipment and customized software developed by Symix Computer Systems, Inc. (Developer). CNB entered into a Master License Agreement with the Developer.
To make this acquisition, CNB entered into an off-balance sheet lease with Amplicon, Inc., as the lessor. Amplicon paid for the software and hardware, but it received no rights to the software. The Developer retained the exclusive rights to "[a]ll trademarks, service marks, patents, copyrights, trade secrets and other proprietary rights in or related to the Products"…[all of which it said] "will remain the exclusive property of Symix or it licensors."
On March 10, 1999, less than a year after the lease commenced, CNB filed a bankruptcy petition. CNB did not pay for or use the software from the date of the filing. Amplicon filed a motion to compel the assumption or rejection of the lease. It also asserted that
Section 365(d)(10) of the Federal Bankruptcy Code imposed on debtor the obligation to pay the contract rent starting on the 60th day after the filing of the petition. CNB ultimately rejected the lease and Amplicon renewed its request for post-petition rent. The parties settled with respect to the equipment portion of the lease; so the court turned its attention to the claims regarding the software.
Issue: The court considered whether the transaction constituted a true lease of the software that entitled Amplicon to use the special rights under Section 365(d)(10) to recover post-petition rent.
Outcome:
The court found that the parties did not enter into a true lease with respect to the software. Rather, the agreement represented an executory contract, which CNB could reject. The transaction did not even constitute a security interest because CNB had no interest in the software that would enable it to grant a lien to Amplicon (page 12). Although Amplicon’s
lease satisfied the "bright-line tests" under
Section 1-201(37)
of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) to avoid being characterized as a security agreement (page 8), the transaction failed to qualify as a lease under
Section 2A-103(1)(j)
of the UCC. The UCC defines a "lease" as "a transfer of the right to possession and use of goods for a term in return for consideration, but a sale…or retention or creation of a security interest is not a lease." See:
Lessees in Bankruptcy Declare Open Season on True Leasing, Business Leasing News (May 2004). The court determined that Amplicon did not have the essential right to transfer a right of use to CNB, as lessee, because all rights to the software had been retained by the Developer. The court said: "With respect to the software, Amplicon simply owned nothing that it could have transferred to the debtor" (page 9). Consequently, Amplicon suffered a total loss regarding the software, including any additional payments for the post-petition period during which CNB had possession but did not use the software.
*Comment: This case confirms that, as the court put it: "If properly structured, software leases function as an effective mechanism for access to intellectual property" (page 10). To lease software and overcome the challenge encountered in this case, consider these critical elements with respect to software:
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Structure a
software (and hardware) lease to pass the bright-line test under
Section 1-201(37) of the UCC.
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Enter into three-party agreements with the lessor, lessee and software developer in which the developer transfers rights of possession and use of the software rights to the lessor. Have the developer acknowledge that lessor will then transfer such rights to the lessee. Consider entering into an agreement of the type described in Article 3 above regarding health care, titled:
Hospitals Focus on Technology as Capital Spending Ramps Up.
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Determine the value of software in a lease transaction as a separate leased asset to improve your chances of recovering post-petition rent payments in a bankruptcy case under Section 365(d)(10).
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5. Leasing 101:
What is "Usury"?
As the Federal Reserve contemplates raising interest rates, the question of whether interest charged on transactions exceeds lawful amounts may become a more frequent concern.
Usury generally refers to constitutional and statutory provisions that limit the amount of interest or other compensation that a lender can contract to receive, charge or actually receive on the principal amount of a loan or forbearance of money. (Forbearance generally refers to delaying the collection of money due or later to become due from a borrower.)
The states have a veritable menu of complex rules governing usury, which requires you to evaluate the rules on a state-by-state basis.
*Tip: Ask local counsel to assist you in evaluating loans, fees, equity interests (such as warrants), interest rates and other compensation for the use of money or forbearance from collecting money, as well as other usury issues in each lease and loan transaction.
For example, in New York, Section 5-501 of the
General Obligations Law (GOL) establishes maximum rates of interest that a lender can charge. The maximum rate is 16 percent unless otherwise provided under Section 14 of the Banking Law. In theory, usury applies only to loans and not to leases because leases do not involve a loan or forbearance of money. See:
Orix Credit Alliance, Inc. v. Northeastern Tech Excavating Corp., 222 A.D.2d 796, 797-98, 634 N.Y.S. 841 (3rd Dept. 1995) (holding "because a lease does not constitute a loan or forbearance of money, it does not fall within the definition of usury"). In New York, usurious loans are void. Criminal penalties exist when certain non-exempt lenders charge rates exceeding 25 percent. See: Section 5-521 of the GOL.
Texas offers another example of usury rules that can be managed, but are complex. In Texas, Article 16, Section 11 of the Texas Constitution and Chapter 301 et seq. of the
Texas Finance Code provide usury rules. The lawful interest rates range from 6 percent to 28 percent (Section 303.009(c)) depending on the nature of the transaction. See:
Rate Ceilings. Like New York, a true lease or rental of personal or real property does not involve a loan subject to Texas usury laws. See:
Apparel Mfg. Co. v. Vantage Properties, Inc., 597 S.W.2d 472, 478 (Tex. 1980) (rental of real property not subject to usury). In Texas, the penalties can be severe, including a statutory penalty of three times the excess amount of interest plus attorneys’ fees, and possible liability for principal, interest and other amounts charged by the lender.
*Warning: Here are two important concerns:
Structure your lease to assure that it is not recharacterized as a disguised loan. If a court treats your lease as a loan, the deal
may subject a transaction to usury laws and possible penalties. See:
Kinerd v. Colonial Leasing Co., 800 S.W.2d 187 (Tex. 1990).
Use usury savings provisions in contracts (that attempt to cut back to a lawful rate any excessive interest), but don’t depend on those provisions if you have any doubt about whether your transaction fits within the usury limits of the local law.
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6.
BLN Briefs: Major ETI, Energy Bills in Motion; Boeing Tanker Lease Out of Gas
Major ETI, Energy Bills in Motion.
The Senate passed the Jumpstart Our Business Strength (JOBS) Act (S. 1637) to repeal the U.S. exclusion of extraterritorial income (ETI). The World Trade Organization imposed sanctions on the U.S. in response to this allegedly illegal export subsidy. The JOBS bill also contains
energy incentives, including wind energy tax credits. The House of Representatives appears poised to vote soon on its version of the bill, the
American Jobs Creation Act of 2003 (H.R. 2896).
Boeing Tanker Lease Out of Gas.
The Boeing 767 KC-767A
aircraft lease procurement program ran out of gas on May 26, 2004. Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld put it on hold until December 2004. The $23.5
billion transaction will have to be negotiated anew and the Pentagon will have to reconsider its need for the aerial fuel tanker. The delay may represent the end of the program for Boeing, which has faced an uphill battle for over a year. The leasing transaction is a casualty of political and economic forces. See:
Boeing 767 Tanker Lease Slimmed Down, Business Leasing News (November 2003).
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7. Training Offered; Webinar on True Leasing
Training - Substance the Easy Way!
To help improve your business operations, deal processing and risk management, I offer private training seminars tailored to your specific needs at your designated location. My interactive and informative training includes topics I cover in BLN. I customize the format and content for your specific training needs- no canned programs.
After one of my private training sessions, here’s what one of the company’s senior managers said: "David, thanks again for an excellent presentation. You helped us tackle a complex, but important topic. Your expertise is first rate and you are an excellent teacher to boot—that’s a rare combination."
Feel free to call me at (214) 758-1545 to discuss the possibilities.
Webinar on True Leasing
On July 14, 2004, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. (Eastern Time), the Equipment Leasing Association will sponsor a web seminar titled: "True Leases Under Attack: Structuring a True Lease in the Face of New Challenges." I will lead a panel of speakers with business, corporate and legal backgrounds who will present this program in "webinar" format, with slides and about 75 pages of back up materials available online. The panel will clarify some confusing terminology of true leases, using a "cheat sheet" of terms, and discuss how you can meet today’s challenges to true leases as disguised financing arrangements. The panel will emphasize how Financial Accounting Standards No. 13 and true tax leasing concepts interact with current trends affecting leases to provide guidance for structuring, pricing, negotiating and closing lease transactions in the current market. Please join us. Marketing, executive, pricing, accounting, legal, administrative and tax participants in leasing can benefit from this program. For more information, visit
http://www.elaonline.com and look for the sign-up information on this event.
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8. Feedback; About Patton Boggs LLP and My Practice
Feedback
I receive comments from readers of Business Leasing News. Here are a few from the last month:
One reader e-mailed from down under - Australia: "Australian Fan…Dear David, I must say that your BLN Site is such a great joy to read! Often tax and accounting issues make for a dreadful read - but you have managed to provide information that is both very 'readable' and at the same time very informative." Another reader simply added: "Your work continues to be very impressive." A third reader, whom I met at the ELA Large Ticket Conference, said: "I really enjoy reading [BLN]… and I look forward to it each month."
Thanks for your feedback. As always, I encourage you to e-mail me or call me and think of Patton Boggs LLP as a broad-based legal resource available to you in a broad range of disciplines.
About Patton Boggs LLP and My Law Practice
As you may be aware, I am a part of the Patton Boggs LLP Business Transactions Group in our Dallas office. Patton Boggs LLP is a law firm of about 400 lawyers located globally in multiple locations. The firm has extensive capabilities in over 50 areas of legal practice that include leasing, secured transactions, personal property financing, securitizations, syndications, power project and mezzanine financing, bankruptcy, real estate, public policy, litigation, intellectual property and technology law, and much more.
The leasing and secured transactions practices regularly involve the buying, selling, financing and leasing of real and personal property of all kinds, including business aircraft, energy, facility, production, power plant, technology and health care assets. We also structure, negotiate and close secured transactions of all kinds, tax-exempt, state and federal leasing arrangements and corporate and portfolio acquisitions, among a full range of financing and acquisition transactions. Despite the improving economy, we continue to assist our clients with troubled deals and bankruptcies, including repossessions, lift stay actions, true lease contests, deficiency litigation, workouts and forbearance arrangements.
Please feel free to call me at (214) 758-1545 or e-mail me at
dmayer@pattonboggs.com for information about any of these areas or the many others available at Patton Boggs LLP, or to discuss anything I have written in Business Leasing News. I welcome the opportunity to build a relationship with you!
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A Message From the Founder, David G. Mayer
E-Mailers Beware
I often miss meeting face to face with others in a transaction or other collaborative efforts. With less time and more to do, we seem to e-mail more and talk less. We rarely get to meet in person for a negotiation or a closing. There’s a special value in seeing the other person’s face, hearing their views, reading their body language and even breaking bread together. It seems that, increasing, we communicate extensively by e-mail, perhaps exclusively so, or by telephone. For me, e-mailing creates a feeling of detachment and distance from others with whom I work.
In a recent study in the by
Janice Nadler,
an assistant professor at Northwestern Law School and a research fellow at the American Bar Foundation, Nadler finds that failing to establish personal rapport before the start of an e-mail negotiation can lead to a total breakdown of the transaction. See: "Rapport in Legal Negotiation: How Small Talk Can Facilitate Email Dealmaking," 9 Harvard Negotiation Law Review 225-253 (2004). Nadler’s study reveals dramatic differences in results of two negotiating teams to buy a car—one that established rapport with "small-talk" secretly before negotiations started and one that conducted negotiations solely by e-mail. The e-mail team failed to reach agreement 40 percent of the time while the small-talk team failed to reach agreement less than 9 percent of the time. In other words, the team that made a personal connection succeeded four times as often in closing the deal.
Developing a personal connection at the inception of the negotiation helped develop a "cooperative mental model" rather than a competitive, uncooperative approach experienced by the e-mail team. The call at the beginning of the negotiation set a positive tone and spirit for the rest of the negotiation. See:
The Pitfalls of E-Mail, Psychology Today on-line (Mar/April 2004).
When you negotiate a deal next time by using e-mail, consider this study, and the value of working with your counterparts personally. Take a little time at the beginning of a negotiation to establish rapport with, and take an interest in, the other parties, in person or by telephone. If you spoke to Professor Nadler about this approach, she would almost certainly predict that by doing so you will have a much, much greater chance of achieving successful results in your transaction.
Good luck in finishing a strong second quarter this month!
Thanks to the BLN Staff
I extend a special thank you to my editors at Patton Boggs LLP for their comments on this edition, Atwood Jeter, Adrian Nicole McCoy and Steve Reagan and our primary web site review partner, Jeff Turner. The technical team, consisting in part of George Barber and Winston Jackson, provide you the easy-to-use e-mail navigation and artistic appearance of BLN.
*Technical Point : Some people have mentioned to me that when they print out BLN, the words go off the page and don’t print. To capture all the words on an 8.5 x 11 inch sheet, just change your print margins on your computer or ask your technology friends for help. Your printer can print BLN in full!
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All the
best,
David
David G.
Mayer
Founder
Business Leasing News
Patton Boggs LLP
2001 Ross Avenue
Suite 3000
Dallas, Texas 75201
(214) 758-1545 (phone)
(214) 758-1550 (fax)
E-Mail:
dmayer@pattonboggs.com
© David G. Mayer 2005
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