Dutch company LeasePlan Corporation, one of the leading European companies in vehicle fleet management, is preparing to enter the Romanian market later this year.
"We intend to start operations during the course of this year. With Romania joining the European Union, the attractiveness of this market has increased. Also, there is growing demand from LeasePlan clients for us to provide services in Romania," Rogier Klop, development and corporate strategy manager at LeasePlan Corporation, said in an interview with ZF.
LeasePlan operates in 28 countries, manages 1.26 million vehicles worldwide and is held by a consortium including the Volkswagen Group (50%), the investment fund of the Abu Dhabi Emirate - the Mubadala Development Company (25%) and the Olayan Group from Saudi Arabia (25%).
"We will enter the market with a greenfield investment because our services - operational leasing and fleet management - are new to the Romanian market and we are therefore unable to make any acquisitions on this segment," said Klop. He explained that the advantages of investing in Romania include the potential to expand the business on a market with many international investors and a strong growth rate.
"The disadvantages are that business risks are still high compared with other European markets due to legislation, taxes and the current political climate, as well as the lack of auxiliary services such as companies specialising in road side assistance, market research and car registration," added Klop.
The Dutch-held LeasePlan is not the only leasing company to have responded to the growth potential of the Romanian market. The leasing market is at present attractive witnessing an annual increase of over 45%.
Other strong international companies which have decided to expand their operations to Romania last year were KBC Lease, which bought Romstal Leasing in a transaction worth around 70 million euros at the end of 2006, and Fortis Lease, which entered the market by taking over a smaller leasing company - Global Finance & Leasing.
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