IBM Credit Corp says it had net earnings of $51.5m in the fourth quarter of 1996, down from $55.1m in the same quarter last year, but it did manage to grow profits for the full year, rising to $271.1m from $230.5m in 1995, an advance of 18%. Total assets at December 31 were $12.9bn compared with $11.4bn at year-end 1995, and during 1996, IBM Credit originated $5.8bn in capital equipment financing for end users, a 28% increase compared with 1995 as users came in for the new CMOS mainframes. Capital equipment financing originated for end users in the fourth quarter of 1996 was $2.1bn, an increase of 62% compared with the 1995 period. But where the company used to be a pure end-user leasing play, it is now much more a company that finances the stocks held by its resellers, and for the fourth quarter, working capital financing for distribution channels was $4.1bn, a 28% increase compared with 1995. To support the increased financing volumes, total debt at December 31 rose to $8.1bn from $7.6bn at the end of 1995.
