Leasing remains a fundamentally attractive business, but Marlin Business Services (NASDAQ:MRLN) has gone nowhere fast in the year since I last wrote about the company.
While 2015 is shaping up as a decent year for leasing activity, more
and more commercial banks are turning to leasing as a source of income
as low rates crimp lending profits and regulations crimp once-lucrative
sources of fee income. This has created some price pressure for this
small business leasing operator and that pressure has been magnified by a
relatively conservative balance sheet.
I used to value Marlin on
the assumption that the company would reach the high end of management's
13% to 15% return on equity target. While higher interest rates would
make reaching that level easier (as leasing yields will rise faster than
the company's cost of funds), I can't make the argument that 15% is a
reasonable target anymore. I do believe that Marlin could be an
attractive acquisition for a bank that wants to grow its small business
leasing (and/or cross-sell with commercial lending), but I don't see
exciting standalone value today.
Follow the link for the full article:
Competition And Surplus Capital Seem To Be Holding Marlin Business Services Back
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