Pressemitteilung vom 14.01.2005
EuroWeek - German lessor GFKL plans launch of first term ABS
GFKL Financial Services, one of Germany's largest independent leasing companies, plans to launch its first term securitisation in March, a Eu450m to Eu500m deal lead managed by ABN Amro and WestLB.
GFKL specialises in mobile leasing contracts, from cars and trucks to construction machinery, and receives 90% of its funding from four ABCP conduits.
Two of these conduits, ABN's Tulip and WestLB's Compass, are housing the hire purchase and lease contracts that will come to the term market in a two year revolving transaction. In future they will warehouse new assets
for a second term deal, targeted for 2007.
The company will also continue to use its two other existing ABCP programmes, funded through State Street and RBS conduits. Between them the four conduits house around Eu800m of assets.
»The CP market gives us a degree of independence, but we still depend on the renewal of liquidity lines from the sponsor banks each year,« said Till Ergenzinger, chief financial officer at GFKL in Essen.
»The term issue will give us more independence, diversify our funding, and increase the potential for growing the company.«
»It also establishes a branding in the capital markets, which will help us if we decide to issue a corporate bond,« Ergenzinger said, adding that GFKL will look to get itself rated and explore corporate bond issuance within
two years.
Most of the company's assets are German, although the securitisation in March will include a small portion of Dutch leases from a Netherlands company bought by GFKL in 2004.
As well as originating its own assets, GFKL also purchases portfolios from smaller leasing companies across Germany, and is planning to step up these purchases.
»There is lots of demand for leases in Germany, but smaller companies without access to the capital markets can easily run into financing bottlenecks,« Ergenzinger said.
GFKL intends to alter the documentation of its conduit programmes to make future lease purchases easier to refinance. At the moment specific documentation is required each time purchased assets are sold into the
vehicles.
Germany's last term lease securitisation was the Eu400m League 2004-1, launched by VR Leasing in May.
In December ABN Amro's private equity fund FI Equity Partners announced it had acquired a 24.9% stake in GFKL, achieved mainly though the issuance of new shares. Other shareholders include Goldman Sachs, Ergo
Versicherungsgruppe and WestLB.
GFKL has also acted as a servicer in another securitisation? Goldman Sachs' FAST 1999-1, which financed a portfolio of German leases Goldman bought from German subsidiaries of ABN Amro.
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Informationen über die GFKL Financial Services AG
Die im Jahre 1992 gegründete GFKL Financial Services AG ist eine Leasing- und Outsourcinggesellschaft mit einem deutschlandweiten Geschäftsstellennetz. Kernkompetenz der Firmengruppe ist die Finanzierung von Investitionsgütern sowie die Bewertung, der Kauf und die Verwaltung von Forderungsportfolios. Die GFKL Financial Services AG bildet als Holding das Dach für mehrere operative Tochterunternehmen. Diese Gesellschaften können mit Ihrem Angebot die gesamte Wertschöpfungskette in der Finanzierung mobiler Investitionsgüter abdecken:
- Abschluss eigener Leasing-, Miet- und Finanzkaufverträge
- Verwaltung und Akquisition von Kredit- und Leasingportfolios
- Refinanzierung von Leasinggesellschaften
- Sicherstellung und Verwertung von beweglichen Investitionsgütern
- Unternehmenssoftware, Dienstleistungen und Beratung rund um die Forderungsbeitreibung
Zu den Gesellschaftern der GFKL Financial Services AG gehören u.a. Tochtergesellschaften der ABN AMRO Bank, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. und der ERGO Versicherungsgruppe AG sowie die Westdeutsche Landesbank AG. In der GFKL Financial Services AG sind als Konzernholding die Stabsfunktionen der Unternehmensgruppe zusammengefasst.
Die rund 660 Mitarbeiter der GFKL-Gruppe erlösten in 2004 einen Konzernumsatz von 539,5 Millionen Euro bei einem Konzernergebnis nach Steuern von 14,1 Millionen Euro. Die Eigenkapitalrendite belief sich im vergangenen Geschäftsjahr auf einen Wert von 18,5 Prozent.
GFKL Financial Services AG
Public Relations
Limbecker Platz 1
45127 Essen
E-Mail: pr(at)gfkl.com
