the tsl interview
Peter rosenthal
Factoring is in his Blood
BY MICHELE OCEJO
Peter rosenthal is president
of rosenthal & rosenthal,
Inc., one of the largest
privately held factoring
and finance companies in
the United states. he gave
tsl his thoughts on the
current credit environment,
opportunities in China and the
future of the retail industry.
Please tell us how you got involved in
the factoring industry.
After college I worked for Chemical Bank
as part of their analyst training program
and spent several years there. I then
went back to law school, and right after
law school I joined my family’s firm.
My grandfather founded the company
in 1938 and it’s still a privately-owned,
family-owned business.
Did you ever consider not joining the
family business?
Joining the firm was always a
consideration, but I initially intended
to practice law. After my grandfather
passed away, my father took over as
president of the firm. He remains the
chairman and chief executive officer
today. At that time we started having
some conversations about what I
wanted to do. We talked quite a bit
about it and I decided the best thing
to do was to join right away. I chose to
continue the legacy of the firm that my
grandfather founded 71 years ago.
How is the current credit environment
affecting factors in general, and Rosenthal & Rosenthal, in particular?
Well, typically during economic down-
turns, factors do quite well because
banks tend to pull back on their lending,
and companies looking for funding will
often come to factors. Today, it’s even
more exaggerated because of the severity of this downturn and the nature of
it. As everyone knows, banks are cutting
back substantially on their lending, so
there are fewer and fewer sources of
financing today for companies. So, in
that respect, it’s a good time for factors,
and that’s enhanced by the fact that
the retail environment is so challenged.
Those two phenomena make it a particularly good time for factors in respect to
getting new business. In fact, you have
companies that have never factored
before that are now looking at the factoring product as an option for them.
But, because we’re part of the
financial services industry, there are
challenges as well. For us here at
Rosenthal, we’re fortunate, I think,
because, unlike some other factoring
firms, we don’t have exposure to some
of the areas of the finance world that
have taken such a large hit. For example,
we don’t have much exposure to the
real estate market, we didn’t have any
sub-prime exposure; 85 percent of our
business is factoring. So, to that extent,
