Recruitment and expansion
plans are high on Vienna centre’s priorities. Antonio Fabrizio
reports.
Go deeper with GlobalData
UniCredit Leasing’s know-how of
renewable energy finance has been centralised in a competence
centre launched in Vienna last year. From there, a team headed by
Martin Mayr manages the lessor’s renewable business, which spans 17
countries.
The choice of Vienna lies within UniCredit
Leasing’s expansion strategy in the CEE region – and is in line
with the fact that most of the international business expertise is
based there. However, the competence centre also operates through
offices in Milan and Rome for Italian-based transactions.
According to Mayr, whose background includes a
focus on CEE finance and larger projects, each country has
developed a specific focus on a few products, and overall “there is
a rich experience within the group”.
In terms of photovoltaic (PV) projects, Italy
is the major country, followed by Czech Republic and Germany, and
the company is “following some opportunities” in Romania and
Bulgaria.
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By GlobalDataThe Czech Republic, where UniCredit Leasing is
the largest lessor, remains on top of the list and a special team
is in operation there.
The “secure legal environment” and “the strong
and fast product development” have been among the favourable
conditions that have allowed UniCredit Leasing’s PV business to
thrive of late.
Recent PV projects in the Czech Republic have
included around 30 small-size utility projects (in the range of €3m
to €5m) while around 200 smaller, roof-top projects are being
developed in Italy at present.
Alongside these deals, the lessor is doing some
project financing transactions which have a leasing element. The
largest PV project in Slovenia is also about to be signed,
totalling around €20m.
Regarding wind projects, according to Mayr “the
most interesting opportunities are in Austria, Romania, Bulgaria”.
A number of deals have also been signed in Italy, where the
development, however, is slower and focused on mini-eolic generator
projects.
“Wind is a technology which is interesting in
all the countries, whereas with PV you usually have a few selected
countries. However, we are signing projects all the time and this
year we have seen an increase in PV deals,” he said.
Hydro plant projects are also being developed
in Italy, Austria and Serbia, and biomass is increasing in Austria,
Hungary and Germany.
According to Mayr, the deals’ structure is
“typical for all cash flow based financing transactions: we would
have a ring-fencing of the SPV – meaning that the project has to be
autonomous within the SPV from a technical and managerial point of
view”.
Mayr’s team in the competence centre – which
includes five staff – is being increased to 12 people to reflect
the increased business. Alongside this “core team”, there is one
person in each country (and in some cases, like in the Czech
Republic, a whole team) co-ordinating the business for renewable
energy, and then the sales people across the network.
The launch of a website focusing only on the
lessor’s renewable energy offer, and a number of conferences and
renewable energy fairs complete the lessor’s involvement in the
sector.
Mayr concluded: “We want to see ourselves and
be recognised by others not just as a bank-owned leasing company,
but also as part of the renewable energy community.”
