Demand for flexible financing growing in construction industry: Ivan Franklin of Mitsubishi HC Capital America

Johnnie Martinez 0:06
All right. On today's episode of the Dig, I am joined by Ivan Franklin of Mitsubishi HC Capital America and I will let him introduce himself further.

Ivan Franklin 0:15
Yeah. So obviously, I'm, I'm Ivan Franklin.
As Johnny just mentioned, I'm the the VP of Business Development focusing on new OEM finance partnerships for Mitsubishi HC Capital America.
I've been with the company now and it's kind of crazy to think, but it'll be 12 years coming up in September. That's been through a couple different iterations.
We work Creek grids and we're about by Hitachi.
Got you.
Then we're about by Mitsubishi, so there's been changes too, but I've been. I've been here for all of those.
So it's been a great experience know I currently report to our Itasca IL Office, but I I work out of my home here in Stillwater, MN.
So you got me on a good day because the sun's been shining the last couple days, which we haven't seen in about 3.
So energy levels are high, but yeah, that's that's my my, my background for my, for myself, I've probably been in.
Construction financing now for seven to eight years.
I didn't start there in equipment finance, but that's where I've been. And you know, I've learned a lot.
I think it's a great industry and I'm excited to continue my career and and growth within this industry as well.
Johnnie Martinez 1:16
OK.
Ivan Franklin 1:21
And you know, no. Go ahead, Johnny. Sorry.
Johnnie Martinez 1:27
You rob the construction industry specifically and that's kind of going to be our focus here today. And you know one of the reports that the Mitsubishi HC Capital America put out.
Ivan Franklin 1:33
Yeah.
Johnnie Martinez 1:38
Back in January was some of the trends to identify, but I wanted to get your take on it. As someone who's a lot more in in the trenches, in terms of what the?
You know, construction industry should be expecting for the rest of this year and sort of what are those key trends to to watch.
Ivan Franklin 1:58
Yeah. You know, there's a a handful of trends that that we're kind of seeing out there.
I think the first one we saw on the latter part of 2024 and it's going to, I think continue to creep into 2025 and that's just a little, you know, economic uncertainty and some slowness in the market. You know inflation still here I think.
From an anecdotal standpoint, we're still seeing some equipment purchases drag on or some finance quotas that out there longer than normal, right?
So I'm hoping that's not going to be the case.
25 But that's kind of what we've seen.
And my next point.
I'm proud of myself.
It took me all but a minute and a half to shamelessly plug some financing, but I think there's going to be a continued shift towards flexible finance offerings.
We're already seeing it now and I think we'll continue to see it, but an increase in in appetite for FMB leases and operating leases since they provide the most flexibility and typically have the, the lowest monthly payment and then maybe some structured finance.
Solutions and when I say that I mean things with skipped payments or seasonal payment streams on on loans and leases, things that match the cash flow cycle of businesses, we'll see too.
Other things are growth in the rental industry.
I think we probably say that year after year, but it's going to be the the case this year as well.
It's a continually growing market and again for some of the same reasons, right.
I think it's more flexible for customers and also can be cost effective since you're paying for the use of the equipment.
Ment electrification is going to be a big one. You know all the OEMs out there have some form of electric piece of equipment that there's, you know, big marketing push behind. And then lastly just increased adoption of technology.
So things like AI telematics and automation.
Johnnie Martinez 3:49
That that makes a ton of sense.
And yeah, it's a lot of the the same themes behind all the the trends, right.
It's about meeting these these user needs these customer demands and getting exactly what they kind of need depending on where their business is going.
All right.
Ivan Franklin 4:05
Exactly.
Johnnie Martinez