and innovation at Amstel Lease, the subsidiary of Dutch bank ABN
AMRO, could not disguise his feelings of disappointment at
Leaseurope’s event last month.
Just a few days earlier he had been informed that, after 12
months of preparation for the merger of Amstel Lease and Fortis
Lease, the union was no longer going to take place.
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It has been a bitter pill for Amstel Lease to swallow. Almost
exactly to the day one year before, it, along with its parent, had
been effectively swallowed up by Fortis. For the next year Peterson
and the other members of the management team spent their days
planning for the transferral of shares in Amstel Lease from ABN
AMRO to Fortis.
“There were a lot of legal preparations, plus tax and regulatory
issues. Plus there would have been a new chain of command and
reporting structure,” said Petersen.
Amstel Lease also worked hard in the months leading up to
October preparing for the separation of Amstel Lease from ABN
AMRO.
Although this would not have been a “very difficult task”,
according to Peterson, as the leasing company has its own staff and
systems, there were various “policy connections” which would have
been hived off.
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By GlobalDataAlso, besides taking the first steps towards a planned
“connection of the Amstel Lease and Fortis Lease Systems”, the
months were spent working closely with who Petersen expected would
be his future colleagues at Fortis Lease. This, however, was not to
be.
The separation of Amstel Lease and its €2.8 billion portfolio
from ABN AMRO was due to have been completed by the end of 2009,
when Fortis and ABN AMRO would have finally united.
For the short- to medium-term Amstel Lease and Fortis Lease
would have functioned as quite different outfits – Amstel
headquartered in Utrecht, Fortis Lease in Den Bosch, each with
individual management and systems.
In 2010, however, it was planned that Amstel Lease’s name would
be phased out, their systems united, and management issues
resolved.
However, Amstel Lease can now only wait and see what the Dutch
authorities plan to do with the business. It announced last month
that at the end of November it would unveil plans for the future of
Fortis and ABN AMRO.
Meanwhile, said Petersen, it is “business as usual – we have the
same command lines, the same funding is in place. The fundamental
business has not changed.” While bad debts are growing, business is
relatively good with 6 percent growth year on year. 85 percent of
its business is sourced from its parent bank, and it focuses mainly
on existing customers rather than attracting new ones. It is ranked
second in Holland, and it has small operations in the UK, Germany
and Belgium.
Meanwhile, plans to break into six new geographies have been put
on hold.
Brendan Malkin
