🚕 Marblegate Wants To Know What A NYC Taxi Medallion Is Worth

Entity linked to Marblegate appears to be behind first sizeable taxi medallion auction taking place on September 28th. We share auction details and some thoughts

• Taxi Clubhouse hosted an info session on upcoming NYC taxi medallion auction

• 10 medallions, that appear to be effectively controlled by Marblegate, being auctioned with bids starting at $150,000

• Based on discussions, valuation expectations are ~$200,000

• Financing is being made available to qualified buyers

• Auction results could form valuation basis for Marblegate’s stock market listing

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Yesterday, we went to a helpful info session held at the Taxi Clubhouse (161 W 22nd St Ground Floor, New York, NY 10011), hosted by Field Point Servicing. Field Point helps large investment firms, “service” or manage their loan portfolios.

In this instance, it appears Marblegate-linked DePalma Acquisition I LLC has retained Field Point to help them sell 10 NYC taxi medallions likely tied to medallion loans Marblegate controls. In other words, these medallions might be subject to foreclosure, where Marblegate effectively controls the taxi medallion via a loan. Based on AutoMarketplace analysis, 3 of the 10 medallions being auctioned have active insurance (i.e., proxy for being actively driven).

AI-generated image (Midjourney), based on AutoMarketplace prompt

As we’ve covered previously, Marblegate, a prominent “distressed” investment firm, is actively attempting to publicly list its extensive taxi medallion-related holding, which consists of standalone NYC taxi medallions, medallion loans and potentially a taxi management company (i.e., taxi garage). A successful listing of Marblegate’s medallion holdings will be a watershed moment for the NYC for-hire transportation (TLC) industry – it will create a liquid, tradeable benchmark for NYC taxi medallions.

If successful, Marblegate’s publicly-traded taxi medallion holdings portfolio will likely cause hundreds of millions of dollars (billions? 💰💰💰) of investment inflows from institutional investors into the NYC TLC industry, which has other knock-on effects. For example, banks and other financial institutions will likely (re)educate themselves on the industry and be more comfortable lending to it.

Imagine you wanted to buy a house, but no bank was willing to provide a mortgage? Determining the correct price for the house will be characterized by comparing imperfect, janky transactions with large “bid-ask” spreads, because the ONLY buyers would be people or investors that come with all-cash offers (i.e., not a lot of people can purchase a house or other costly assets with 100% cash). Another dynamic that would arise would likely be the need for a seller to provide financing in order to create a “liquidity event” (i.e., ability to exit an investment). This is one of the core issues plaguing the taxi medallion industry.

In perhaps a preview of the future, based on AutoMarketplace discussions with several licensed taxi medallion brokers, a handful of financial institutions are exploring lending to the NYC taxi medallion industry again. Based on our discussion with the Field Point representative yesterday, it also appears there are lenders (perhaps Marblegate itself) that are willing to lend to successful bidders - 5 year term loan (w/ balloon 🎈 payment) at 9.5%, based on 20 year amortization schedule. The purchaser would probably assume another financial institution would refinance the loan after 5 years vs. paying off the full loan outstanding (see video summary for financial analysis and what this means / looks like).

Why Auction Only 10 Medallions?

So, why is Marblegate, which likely owns thousands of taxi medallions and medallion loans, auctioning off 10 taxi medallions? Our guess is that they (1) want to prove to investors that demand for NYC taxi medallions exist ahead of listing their medallion-related holdings and (2) will use the winning bids to value their medallion portfolio as they pitch investors. For example, if the winning bid for the medallions average $200,000, Marblegate can reasonably use that value to say our [1,000] taxi medallions are worth $200 million and our [3,000] medallion-backed loans have a collateral value of $600 million.

This can be a complex topic to understand, so we hope the video explanation below is helpful. We also include relevant information and links about the auction below.  

Video Summary

Link to Auction

• Link to auction site (Maltz Auctions)

• Email accountservices@fpservicing.com for details

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As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or by emailing us at info@automarketplace.com.

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AutoMarketplace NYC covers the for-hire transportation industry and automotive news. Check out AutoMarketplace on YouTube ▶️