One of the Mitchell brothers, who sold their United Leasing Plc in 1987, has returned to the leasing game: while Ashley Mitchell panders to the chattering classes at his Soho delicatessen Mitchell O’Brien, Parry Mitchell has set up a new company to raise finance through the sale and leaseback of brand names; Unison Ltd will calculate the value of trademarks and brandnames and write leases with bank finance, and Mitchell says that the typical value of such leases will be between UKP20m and UKP40m; brand name leasing is still highly controversial, and some accountants dismiss it as a dubious and nonsensical practice; however, Mitchell compares the life of brand names to property; he says that by holding leased trademarks in other European countries where the taxation of intangible assets is less onerous than in the UK, he should be able to offer rates at 2% lower than conventional borrowings – wonder how much he reckons he can raise for us on the name Computergram.
