Financial Services has announced its decision to sell or dissolve
all of its leasing operations, and concentrate on core business
lines of collection, factoring and software provision.
The group had operated leasing businesses in Germany, Spain, the
UK and the Benelux region, under the aegis of the Universal Leasing
subsidiary group, and with a combined portfolio value of €1.6
billion.
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The Spanish portion of Universal was sold to ING Car Lease Spain
earlier this year. Now Universal’s German operations – worth 62
percent of the company’s lease portfolio before the Spanish sale –
are to face the axe, according to GFKL.
Furthermore, GFKL intends to sell the Benelux and UK portions of
Universal before year end. The UK business held 15 percent of
Universal’s former portfolio and employs 100 staff, while the
Benelux arm held 11 percent and employs 20.
Pulling out of leasing has already freed up €150 million of
liquidity for GFKL, with which it will aggressively pursue market
share in the sphere of collections, as well as in factoring and
software provision.
GFKL’s collections business, which employs 1500, is reportedly
operating a 20 percent margin at present. It showed a 30 percent
growth year-on-year at last report, with collections receivable
standing at over €20 billion currently.
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