2005 News

NFA Expects Bumper Year, Adds Personnel, Forms New Advisory Board

Tony Basile, President of National Franchise Acceptance LLC (“NFA”), announced today that NFA anticipates significant growth in all segments of its Yum! Brand only franchisee loan program in 2005. Additional senior personnel have already been hired to support increased underwriting responsibilities with other loan closing and administrative personnel on the way. Tony also reported that a new NFA Advisory Board has been formed which includes members from NFA and a number of highly respected outside members including Robert Goldberg, Dennis Mullen, and Don Shine.

In a prepared statement Tony stated: "We are extremely pleased at the reception we received from all of the Yum! Brands franchise brands. While we had anticipated that our growth curve would be steep this year, our pipeline of business exceeds our expectations. This provides additional confirmation that our approach to the financial and business related needs of our borrowers distinguishes us from the pack. Now that we backed by a $500 million credit line from a household name financial institution, we are extremely well positioned to move quickly from commitment to funding on a larger scale basis.

"We are also committed to obtaining independent, objective ideas and analysis of our business strategies and objectives from sophisticated and experienced business executives, professional and entrepreneurs. We believe that the creation of the NFA Advisory Board and selection of the outside members named above will significantly enhance NFA’s ability to break new ground and bring fresh ideas to franchisee financing.”

NFA was initially formed in 2003 to service the image enhancement financing requirements of Taco Bell franchisees. As distinguished from other financing service providers, principals of NFA are also owners and operators of Yum! Brands fast food restaurants and have decades of industry experience, and an intimate understanding of Yum! business objectives and operating systems. NFA now offers the same comprehensive financing services to all Yum! Brands fast food franchise restaurants, including KFC, Pizza Hut, Long John Silver's and A&W.