LeasePlan’s new owners weigh sale or bourse launch

A carThe owners of car leasing giant LeasePlan are considering either selling the company or launching it on the stock exchange, the Financieele Dagblad reported on Tuesday.

The plans were confimed by several sources who chose to remain anonymous after the story was leaked by Bloomburg news agency on Monday, the paper said.

The Almere-based company, which claims to be the world’s largest car leasing firm, was sold a year ago by Volkswagen and German banker Friedrich von Metzler.  It was bought by a consortium which includes Dutch pension fund PGGM, the Danish fund ATP, the state funds of Abu Dhabi (Adia) and Singapore (SIG), private equity house TDR Capital and investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Founded some 50 years ago, LeasePlan manages about 1.6 million cars worldwide. In 2017, the company posted net profit up 3.8% at €425.5m. The increase would have been 7%, discounting the company’s €70m reorganisation last year.

Any change in ownership of LeasePlan would require the approval of the Dutch central bank DNB because LeasePlan is not only a leasing company but also has a banking licence. The DNB forced the present owners to use less borrowed money for the recent transaction.

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