Inside DLL’s partnership strategy

After 15 years of working together, Mitsubishi Logisnext Americas and global asset financier DLL have partnered to launch, Logisnext Financial Services, to offer financing arrangements for both dealers and buyers.  

Logisnext Financial Services won’t exist as a separate business unit; instead, the new deal codifies existing services that DLL has offered for several years, Mike Kinka, global president of construction, transportation and industrial (CTI) business at DLL Group, told Equipment Finance News.  

The goal for Logisnext Financial Services is “to create a captive-like feel for dealers and end users,” he said.  

“This relationship covers both inventory finance at the dealer level and then end-user financing as the dealers sell the product,” Kinka said. “The goal here is to help Mitsubishi Logisnext move the product to the dealers, and then help those dealers move the product out to the end users.”  

The company will continue financing Mitsubishi forklift trucks, Rocla AGVs, UniCarriers forklifts, and Jungheinrich and Cat lift trucks, he said. 

Growth strategy  

DLL, owned by Dutch global banking and financial services firm Rabobank, is in “growth mode,” Kinka said.  

“We think the opportunity is ripe right now, so we’re looking for market share in all 20 of our countries,” Kinka said. The United States represents 40% of DLL’s CTI portfolio, making it the No. 1 target for deals.  

Other areas of focus include: Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Italy. Australia and New Zealand are growing markets, as is DLL’s home country of the Netherlands, Kinka said.  

In January, DLL began a financing partnership with Chinese OEM Sany America to expand its CTI business. That was just one of several deals last year, including:  

• A financing agreement with electric vehicle maker Waev in December 2023 
• A deal with Swedish electric truck maker Volta Trucks in April 2023. Volta went bankrupt six months later after failing to meet fundraising and production targets. 
• A partnership with Santa Rosa, Calif.-based electric tractor manufacturer Solectrac in November 2022; 

Financing key to resolving inventory glut 

As construction dealer lots continue to stay flush with inventory — which is up as much as 60% on a monthly basis in some sectors — financiers like Logisnext Financial Services, which operate at the intersection of dealer and lender, could stand to gain.  

“We are looking for anything we can do to help move the dealer inventory to new end-users, so we are happy to work with the dealers and get creative to come up with new financing schemes that might help them move some of the older stuff that they have in their inventory,” Kinka told EFN.  

“The goal is to deliver multiple finance options to an end user so they can find a product that suits them, whether it’s a loan, a lease with return option [or] an extension option.”  

Kinka added that DLL is also starting to get into usage-based lease options, which are particularly useful to dealers looking to build up rental fleets and firms that need equipment on a seasonal or short-term basis or which find that their business is too unpredictable to buy outright.  

Registration is now open for Equipment Finance Connect, the nation’s only dealer-centric equipment lending and leasing event, which will take place May 5-7 in Nashville, Tenn. Learn about the event and free dealer registration at EquipmentFinanceConnect.com.