The tight-knit group of workers at Westlake’s headquarters didn’t pop champagne corks to celebrate. Instead, the privately held company threw a party, serving up a lunch of hamburgers, fries and drinks from In-N-Out Burgers at its Hancock Park offices Aug. 9.
The past year has been quite a ride for Westlake.
When the world locked down in March 2020, the company sent everyone home except for a core group of 15 executives to keep things humming along at Westlake, which logged $2.3 billion in revenue last year.
“We were in the office the entire time. We never went home,” said Ian Anderson, group president of Westlake Technology Holdings, which runs Westlake Financial Services and is one of seven companies operated by Hankey Group in the automotive, finance, technology, real estate and insurance industries.
“We sent most of the company home, but the senior management has been here either since day 1, or starting in June (2020). I made every supervisor, manager, come back because we had so much office space, and everyone was socially distancing,” he added.
The executive brain trust, Anderson said, accelerated Westlake’s expansion plans during the lockdown because the team saw opportunities and saved valuable time video conferencing.
“We got things done quicker,” he said.
Westlake met its financial metrics during the pandemic. The company’s income-generating, asset-backed securitizations have more than doubled in the past three years to $7.12 billion. Credit facilities grew 18.8% to $3 billion this year from last year’s $2.5 billion.
Profit hit $755 million in 2020 on revenue of $2.3 billon — good enough to put fast-growing Westlake at No. 12 on the Business Journal’s list of this year’s largest privately held companies. That’s up from No. 19 on last year’s list when the company had $1.9 billion in revenue.
Westlake’s so-called “canary report,” which is sent out weekly, shows things are healthy in its subprime car lending business. The average FICO credit score for accountholders edged up to 635 from 620, thanks largely to people flush with discretionary money to pay down their car loans with government stimulus money, Anderson said.
“Remember, if their car gets repossessed and they have to go buy another one, then they are paying a hell of a lot more now than they did a year ago,” he said.
In February, Westlake shook things up with a restructuring to reflect its fintech roots. Westlake Technology and its sister company, mid-Wilshire-headquartered Nowcom Corp., joined to create the financial technology company NowLake Technology.
The new company acts as parent to Westlake Technology Holdings and Nowcom, which remain as separate operating entities.
Westlake Technology Holdings is an automotive finance and technology company which provides services such as retail auto loans through its Westlake Financial Services arm, which boasts more than $14.1 billion in assets under management.
Nowcom develops automotive and financial software for Hankey Group companies and for external businesses such as auto dealerships. It also provides information technology support to all Hankey Group companies.
Westlake and Nowcom are part of Hankey Group, a conglomerate of seven companies in the automotive finance, technology, real estate and insurance industries.
Car loans aren’t the only lending Westlake does.
It also has seen burgeoning growth in the past few years by lending for jewelry purchases, consumer loans, credit cards, cell phones, solar equipment and elective medical procedures.
“We were really making a push (beyond autos) in 2020,” Anderson said.
Going forward, Westlake is considering a few acquisitions, possibly in auto and personal lending, and an auction house to sell repossessed automobiles. “You will see more companies under the Westlake umbrella.”
