Tiphook PLC was a

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headquartered

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services company, registered on the

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and

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s, which became the world's second largest marine container leasing business in the 1990s. The Company was once a constituent of the

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. Following a debt-fuelled buying spree in the late 1980s, it crashed in the early 1990s due to accounting changes brought about by its expansion into

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caused by a technical and then actual default in its debt coverage. The rail leasing arm of the business briefly became International Wagon Services in 1996 before being acquired by GE into its European rail leasing business.

Background

Born in 1948, Robert Montague joined

Esso Esso () is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso" (the phonetic p ...

from school, and then ran his father's transport business.

Business model

Montague founded Tiphook in 1975, and later became company chairman. It took advantage of the change in global transport practices, from the 1960s of loose cargo, to the 1980s of

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-based

intermodal container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different Mode of transport, modes of trans ...

ised based transportation systems. This resulted in customers and transport companies requiring more flexible business solutions, resulting in Tiphook having two basic service offerings: *Supply of leased

ISO container An intermodal container, often called a shipping container, is a large standardized shipping container, designed and built for intermodal freight transport, meaning these containers can be used across different modes of transport – from ship ...

s *Supply of leased trailers, both road and

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

They supplemented this initial model with value-added services including maintenance and trans-border clearance. Tiphook grew quickly by acquisition, buying companies by issuing new shares and taking on their existing debt. Such purchases included that of

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owned Trailerent Ltd in 1989, which was referred to the

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. This method of expansion resulted in high levels of debt, assured to lenders through assets on Tiphook's balance sheet.

Difficulties and collapse

Tiphook owned most of its assets: mainly containers and road trailers. As the popularity of containers increased, their cost of manufacture dropped to around $2,000 per 40 ft ISO unit. This was below the asset value logged on Tiphook's book, which resulted in a technical default in Tiphook's loans under US Accountancy laws. This resulted in a proposed

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by US-based shareholders, as the published accounts were now in doubt. There also followed revelations about Montague's lifestyle, including the fact that as well as buying company shares using loans from the company itself, he had 24-hour access to both a chauffeur-driven

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and a

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HS124 corporate jet. Tiphook and its directors, which included Charles Powell, came under severe shareholder pressure. The company resultantly agreed to reduce its debts by selling off its profitable containers business, eventually to

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in February 1994 for $1.1Bn/£700M. It appointed former BOC finance director

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as its new chairman in mid-1994 to bring stabilisation and renamed itself Central Transport Rental plc. Montague was forced to resign in December 1994, which resolved the class action.

Aftermath

In May 1996, Tiphook Rail was sold in a

management buyout A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...

and renamed International Wagon Services Ltd. In 1998 it was purchased by

GE Equipment Services GE Equipment Services was a Stamford, Connecticut-based division of General Electric Industrial, providing transport solutions for supply chains, including equipment leasing, asset management, and logistics services. The European headquarters of G ...

to form part of its pan-European rail services business Cargowaggon. The residual company branded as Tiphook Trailers, which by 1997 operated a fleet of 22,500

trailers Trailer may refer to: a Transportation * Trailer (vehicle), an unpowered vehicle pulled by a powered vehicle ** Bicycle trailer, a wheeled frame for hitching to a bicycle to tow cargo or passengers ** Full-trailer ** Semi-trailer **Horse trailer ...

at 132 depots in nine European countries, was sold in 1997 to

GE Capital GE Capital is the financial services division of General Electric. The company currently only runs one division, GE Energy Financial Services. It had provided additional services in the past; however, those units were sold between 2013 and 2018 ...

, merged with its existing TIP Trailer Services rental and leasing company. Montague was declared bankrupt. After release from his legal obligation, in 1995 he started pan-European transport equipment leasing company Axis, which he folded in 2004 into the later AIM-listed Intermodal Resources. This company is now known as Sea-Axis. In light of Tiphook and the

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scandal at the

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, the UK Government introduced the earliest stages of legislation covering

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References

{{Authority control Transport companies established in 1975 Truck rental Rolling stock leasing companies Companies formerly listed on the London Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Transport companies disestablished in 1997 1975 establishments in England 1997 disestablishments in England

Background

Business model

Difficulties and collapse

Aftermath

See also

References