THE Louis Group, which recently announced a revolutionary financial engineering scheme to underwrite business leases, has expanded the programme so that it can apply to tenants and landlords.

Dr Alan Louis, CEO of Louis Group International, said last week that the group would now make a 'package deal' available to every landlord of a building, administered by a company within the Louis Group stable.

The deal would feature the facility for the landlord to discount leases to the Louis Group of any tenant who met basic creditworthy conditions. The Louis Group was prepared to add in extra costs such as the provision of network facilities, insurances and internal modifications.

Louis has confirmed that the facility is also available to single tenants who wish to negotiate a more favourable 'cash upfront' lease agreement with any receptive landlord. In both cases, such financial arrangements are made with recourse to the landlord.

'There is no reason why our scheme can't work in reverse, the only conditions will be that we must be the broker to the deal,' Louis said.

'We will also suggest that the landlord use the expertise of a professional account executive at Associated Insurance Brokers who would canvas the full spectrum of underwriters to secure the best deal for the client'.

Louis said the financial engineering of leases, as structured by the Louis Group, was a 'win-win' transaction; deals like this were only structured when it suited both parties.