Nov. 13, 2006 – Finance Digest
Arctic Cat preps $20 million stock buy-back
Arctic Cat, Inc. may repurchase up to $20 million of its stock under a plan approved by the company’s board of directors.
This new authorization is in addition to approximately $6.8 million remaining under Arctic Cat’s previous share repurchase program. Arctic Cat has approximately 19.3 million common and Class B common shares outstanding.
Share repurchases under the new program may be made through open market and privately negotiated transactions from time to time and in such amounts as management deems appropriate. The timing of share repurchases will depend on market conditions and other corporate considerations.
Arctic Cat has bought back more than 11 million common shares since 1996.
“This share repurchase program supports the company’s commitment to increase shareholder value and reflects our belief that the stock represents a good investment opportunity,” said Arctic Cat Chairman and CEO Christopher Twomey.
AIH Expands Finance Offerings
American IronHorse and Textron Financial Corporation recently completed moves designed to offer the 11-year-old bike builder and its 100-plus dealers more potential for growth.
In the first move, AIH expanded its line of credit with Textron Financial from $12 million to $15 million, allowing the company a stronger mechanism for internal capital and operations growth.
Then, to assist dealers, AIH increased its current wholesale floorplan agreement with Textron Financial to $50 million and expanded the program to support a new Canadian dealer network.
“What we hope has become evident to the industry, our consumers and to our dealer network is that American IronHorse is becoming a stronger company with an increasing commitment to serve our customers’ needs at all levels,” said Dwayne Moyers, chairman of American IronHorse. “We will continue to be strategic about our growth and we will continue to develop our partnership with Textron Financial as our business needs expand.”
Sparta, netLoan Complete Interface
Sparta Commercial Services, Inc. and netLoan Funding, LLC say they have completed the technology interface required to move forward with their strategic alliance.
netLoan manages a consortium of specialty lenders through its operation of a multi-asset finance portal that is linked to Internet auction and sale Web sites.
Sparta’s financing and leasing products will now appear as a funding option on the netLoan Funding platform. Accordingly, consumers interested in obtaining a secured loan or lease for the purchase of motorcycles, ATVs and scooters will be routed through the netLoan Funding Web site to Sparta’s online credit application, where their application will be automatically decided upon by Sparta’s iPLUS system and, subject to credit approval, will be able to obtain a loan or lease commitment from Sparta.
Although the agreement between Sparta and netLoan was concluded in May, the required interface between the IT platforms of the two companies was accomplished in September, followed by several weeks of beta testing.
GE Retail Sales Finance Changes Its Name
GE Consumer Finance’s Retail Sales Finance unit has changed its name to GE Money — Sales Finance.
“The new name reflects how we’ve evolved beyond the retail space,” said Glenn Marino, president and CEO of GE Money’s Sales Finance unit. “We’re broadening our markets, channels and product offerings — all focused on helping our partners grow their businesses by offering simple, fast and flexible financing programs to their customers.”
GE says the business unit has achieved double-digit growth over the past four years and has doubled its assets in just the past two, reaching $16 billion.
GE Money is a unit of General Electric Company.
