Financier finds niche in North.

• Author: Wareing, Andrew
• Position: Nexcap Finance Corporation

For many small resource-based companies in Northern Ontario, acquiring new equipment can sometimes be a challenge.

Brent Belzile, regional sales manager for Nexcap Finance Corporation's Sudbury office, describes Nexcap as an equipment finance company that leases equipment to companies and one of the oldest technology lessors in Canada. Nearly two years ago, the company decided to diversity itself from the technology field and move into construction, forestry and mining equipment.

The move into Northern Ontario recently has allowed the company to transition into financing for the resource sector.

Belzile says the client-company will identify equipment it needs, which will then be purchased by Nexcap and leased to the company for a certain period of time.

He says the company recognized a potential niche in providing financing for equipment to a resource-based sector of the economy that traditionally had trouble finding structured financing.

"Traditionally, the banks are in and out of term finance," he says. "They will follow the ebbs and flows of the economy and, at certain periods of the economic curve, they will decide they don't want to have money out for four or five years in leasing.

"Also, the bank is precluded from doing a number of true operating leases because of Bank Act restrictions," says Belzile.

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Nexcap came to Sudbury in June when Belzile bought into the company as an equity partner. Nexcap as a company has been around for a number of years and has gone through a number of different incarnations starting with Scott Capital several years ago...