Press release 03.12.2004
GFKL Financial Services AG acquires the Dutch company Transned B.V., Eindhoven. First step towards European expansion.
GFKL Financial Services AG, one of Germany’s leading leasing and outsourcing companies, is branching out into Europe for the first time. After the successful integration of several German leasing companies into the GFKL Group over the last few years, the company’s marked organic growth has now been augmented by the takeover of the Dutch company Transned Lease B.V. from SNS Reaal Invest N.V. Through this company takeover, the GFKL Group has succeeded in gaining access to the lucrative Dutch leasing market. Both contractual parties agreed to keep the purchase price confidential.
Transned Lease B.V. was founded in Eindhoven in 1993, and is the largest independent truck and trailer leasing company in the Netherlands. Almost every tenth truck in the Netherlands was financed by Transned Lease B.V. The leasing portfolio, which contained just under 4.000 agreements as of June 30, 2004, is divided into 83% trucks and 17% trailers, and is a good addition to GFKL subsidiary Universal Leasing GmbH’s existing portfolio. Since 1997, Transned Lease B.V. has also been active on the Dutch leasing market under the brand name IVECO-Lease; under this name, it acts as a »captive leasing company« for IVECO.
In future, Transned Lease B.V. will continue to manage its inventory of agreements independently, and will actively and independently generate new business under the familiar labels »Transned Lease« and »IVECO Lease«. GFKL’s integration strategy intends new subsidiaries to receive the web-based platform “Netlease” as well as linking them into the cross-company risk management and credit management process.
For the GFKL Group, the takeover in the Netherlands constitutes the first step towards future expansion into Europe. The Group is looking into other interesting possibilities, especially in Britain and Spain.
Dr. Peter Jänsch, Chairman of the Executive Board of GFKL Financial Services AG, declared himself to be delighted by the acquisition: »With the acquisition of Transned Lease in the Netherlands, the GFKL Group has taken an important initial step into Europe. The Group has already demonstrated high levels of organic growth in Germany. Now we want to repeat this success story in other countries. Other steps toward expansion are to follow.«
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GFKL Financial Services AG Information:
Founded in 1992, GFKL Financial Services AG is a leasing and financial outsourcing corporation operating a nation-wide network of branches in Germany. The core competencies of the Group encompass financing of investment assets as well as the assessment, acquisition and administration of receivables portfolios. As a holding company, GFKL Financial Services AG provides centralized services for several operational subsidiaries. These corporations offer a spectrum of services that covers the entire value chain in the financing of mobile investment assets:
- Closing of in-house leasing, rental and finance-purchase agreements
- Administration of credit and leasing portfolios
- Refinancing of leasing companies
- Securitizing and sale of mobile investment assets
- Business software, services and consulting for a complete range of receivables collections models
Some of the key shareholders of GFKL Financial Services AG are subsidiaries of ABN AMRO Bank, Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. and ERGO Versicherungsgruppe AG as well as the Westdeutsche Landesbank AG. The staff functions of the group of companies are consolidated at GFKL Financial Services AG as the conglomerate´s holding corporation.
GFKL Group employs about 660 staff members who produced Group revenues of EUR 539.5 million in 2004 and after tax Group earnings of EUR 14.1 million. In the past fiscal year, profits on shareholder equity came in at 18.5 percent.
GFKL Financial Services AG
Limbecker Platz 1
D-45127 Essen
E-Mail: pr@gfkl.com