Susan Gordon, Business Reporter

Dehring Bunting and Golding's (DB&G) head office on Holborn Road in New Kingston. - File

Capitalising on the construc-tion boom now taking place in Jamaica, Dehring Bunting and Golding (DB&G) has revived dormant subsidiary Asset Manage-ment Limited (AML), using it to launch into the consumer financing market where it will target regular consumers and future homeowners.

AML was revived in June this year with the introduction of a new service credit financing service called Easy Own.

The new service offers consumers credit, in the form of hire-purchase agreements on furniture and major appliances from four retailers: Gordon 'Butch' Stewart's Appliance Traders Limited; Gassan Azan's Bashco Trading Company and MegaMart Wholesale Club, and Today's Furniture Limited - all partners in the financing plan.

Finance purchase

The purchaser of the furniture/appliance is required to make the downpayment on the item in cash, and Asset Management will finance the remainder, paying the monies over to the vendor.

Thereafter, the consumer will repay AML at monthly interest ranging between 2.66 per cent and 3.5 per cent, depending on the time limit for payment.

Loan periods would range from three months to three years.

The system is the same as the hire-purchase arrangements now offered directly by furniture companies.

Such credit arrangements provide strong earnings for the furniture sector, a multibillion-dollar business in which the largest player, Courts Jamaica, made sales in the March 2006 quarter of more than $1.4 billion.

DB&G chairman Peter Bunting declined giving projections on the revenue to be gained from Easy Own.

"Over three years, we anticipate it will be one of our top two or three revenue streams," he said.

"We think it is a good investment," he added, directing the comment at shareholders of DB&G.

General manager at Asset Management, Vanessa Reid-Boothe, said the new service is targeted at consumers generally overlooked by the banks and other financial institutions. She said the company would be bringing more partners on board.

Reid-Boothe was as tight- lipped on market potential as Bunting was on revenues, but AML has stiff competition from Courts and Singer, established furniture companies that already offer credit terms to customers.

First of a kind

The AML manager said her company believes it can compete successfully on the interest rates it will offer on the hire-purchase deals.

Describing the service as the first of its kind on the market, she said the company chose the untapped market because it felt car and home financing were saturated.

"Furniture is an area where financial institutions are missing out on the opportunities," said Reid-Boothe. "This is an area where we can add some value to our clients."

The company will finance purchases ranging in price from $15,000 to $800,000.

susan.smith@gleanerjm.com