Grenkeleasing AG’s UK arm has
revealed that it will be more selective in its broker relations,
and focus more heavily on its so-called “good” brokers. It will
also continue to source business through the direct market
approach.
The UK arm of Grenkeleasing AG, the
German lessor which specialises in IT financing for the SME sector,
had been at the centre of rumours that it was facing difficulties
and had been forced to withdraw from the broker market as a direct
consequence of the credit crunch.
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Stefan Zeeh, sales director of
Grenkeleasing in the UK, said: “We have heard about these rumours,
but the truth is we only reduced broker business and terminated
some business relationships.”
He said that Grenkeleasing was still
funding for a few “good” brokers, naming Syscap as one of them.
He added that the company, however,
preferred a direct approach to the market.
“It has always been Grenkeleasing’s
way of approaching the market directly rather than through brokers.
Therefore all we did was to go back, even if not completely, to our
standard business model,” he said.
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By GlobalDataAs to rumours that Grenkeleasing had
tried to enter the micro-market sector, but then decided to
withdraw from it, Zeeh said: “We have not only tried, but done well
in the micro-market sector, as this is where we have the necessary
and efficient processes in place, including the SME sector.”
He said that Grenkeleasing was “not
pulling out”, but was “expanding to be closer to our customers,
with a focus on better quality core business deals with decent
risks”, adding that it was in a unique position in the UK market as
it offered
leases as small as £500.
The UK company, which represents
around 3 percent of the activities of the German-headquartered
lessor and was taken over by Grenkeleasing AG earlier this year,
has reported positive Q308 results, with new business soaring by
almost 100 percent.
It signed 451 contracts with a
net-asset value of £4.9 million, and said that as a consequence of
this positive tendency, its future strategy would include opening
two new sales branches in 2009, and at least two in 2010.
The parent company has also increased
new business, despite a slight drop in net profits. It claimed it
has only experienced a “limited negative impact” from the
international banking crisis.
Q308 results have shown a business
volume increase of over 21 percent, and foreign business has been
the main growth
driver.
Q308 after-tax profits were down to
€8.6 million from €9.3 million in the same period a year ago, but
the company said that this derived from the one-off effects of the
2007 corporate tax reform within the German financial system, which
kept tax burden exceptionally low.
