lessor
LeasePlan Corporation has released its H1 2007 results, which
show that the international fleet management and leasing company
made a net profit of €126.3m (£85.5m) in the six months to June 30
of this year. LeasePlan’s total fleet under management increased by
1.8 per cent to 1.28m units, with the number of financed units
growing by 1.3 per cent – some 12,600 units – to 960,000.The lessor
now has a lease contract portfolio worth €13.7bn (£9.3bn), after
growth during H1 of 3.6 per cent.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Access deeper industry intelligence
Experience unmatched clarity with a single platform that combines unique data, AI, and human expertise.
Operating income over the period increased year on year by 3.1
per cent, reaching €446m (£301m) at June 30 2007. In addition,
LeasePlan managed to shrink its operating expenses bill by 1.2 per
cent to €300m (£203m),“primarily due to lower general and
administrative expenses and lower depreciation”, the lessor said.
Headcount also reduced, from 6,297 at the end of 2006 to 5,914 at
the end of H1.
LeasePlan expanded its operations to three new countries in the
first half of 2007; it now operates in 29 countries worldwide. It
bought a 51 per cent stake in Turkish firm vdf Holding in May,
giving it a controlling interest in vdf Fleet Services. In
addition, its Romanian operation was incorporated, and its United
Arab Emirates joint venture opened for business.
Finding funding
LeasePlan issued two threeyear term floating rate notes (FRN) in
H1 2007, one for €750m (£507m) and one for AUD300m (£123m).
LeasePlan has a total of €4.4bn (£3bn) in liquid cash and committed
back stop facilities, it said, allowing the lessor “to continue to
write new business for a full 12 months without requiring access to
either money markets or unsecured term debt capital markets.” In
addition, LeasePlan has “no exposure whatsoever” to asset classes
such as collateralised debt obligations, mortgage-backed
securities, structured investment vehicles or asset-backed
commercial papers, meaning it has largely avoided the turmoil
currently affecting world financial markets.
Six-month outlook
The lessor is upbeat about its prospects for the rest of the
year: “LeasePlan Corporation expects the full year 2007 profit to
well exceed the profit for 2006.”
It is currently considering further acquisitions in “key growth
markets”, as well as opportunities in new markets to grow its
international reach even further
