Italo-Romena Leasing intends to finance goods worth 120 million euros this year and targets a net income worth 2.8 million euros.
"2006 was a good year, we signed contracts worth 80 million euros, we financed goods worth 63 million euros and registered a net income of 1.8 million euros," Athos Varusio, general manager with Banca Italo Romena, told ZF.
Italian group Veneto Banca, which is also majority shareholder of Banca Italo Romena, controls 85% of the leasing firm.
Car leasing and industrial equipment leasing account for 40% in the portfolio of Italo Romena Leasing each, while real estate leasing accounts for just 20%.
"This year, we intend to focus more on real estate leasing and expect its share of our business to increase by over 50% witnessing further growth in the following years," stated Varusio.
The company offers real estate leasing over a ten-year period, but the term may be extended depending on the company's assessment of specific real estate projects.
"We will not have any problems related to the rising volume of financed contracts, as this year we will operate a share capital increase to support growth. In addition, we are counting on support from Gruppo Veneto Banca," stated Varusio.
Italo Romena Leasing is not the only company to have decided to focus on real estate leasing, with an increasing number of leasing companies having shown an interest in developing on this segment of the market. These include Unicredit Leasing Corporation, the company that was born following the merger between HVB Leasing and UniCredit Leasing, Romstal Leasing, BCR Leasing, Credit Europe Leasing, Piraeus Leasing, Egnatia Leasing and other smaller companies.
In 2003, real estate leasing accounted for 1% of the overall market, a figure that increased almost 8% in the first nine months of last year, to a value of 50 million euros, according to the estimates made by the Leasing and Non-banking Financial Services Association (ALB).
Italo Romena Leasing is under the control of the same Italian financial group as Banca Italo Romena. In 2006, Banca Italo Romena's assets totalled 504 million euros and had an income worth 9 million euros. The banking institution has around 20,000 clients, only 7,000 of which are corporate customers and the other are retail customers.
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