German lessor CHG-Meridian saw strong growth in its lease origination volume which rose 9% year on year to €1.155bn (£980m) from 2015’s figure of €1.057bn.
A non-captive technology management and financing lessor based in Weingarten, southern Germany, CHG-Meridian said it saw growth in the Southern Europe region (Italy, Spain, France), where the volume of leases originated increased by around 26% to reach €161m (2015: €127m).
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Its Americas operation (USA, Canada, Mexico, Brazil) saw lease originations climbing by around 17% to €167m (2015: €142m).
In its domestic market of Germany, its lease originations increased around 10% to €548m (2015: €500m).
"We succeeded in maintaining our high level of organic growth. For me, this is a clear indicator that we are making very good progress and have made the right strategic decisions for the future," said Dr. Mathias Wagner, chairman of the board of management.
The lessor said over 140 funding partners and investors from around the world helped it to provide external funding of €1.02bn (2015: €960m) for technology investments.
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By GlobalData‘Gross margin’ in 2016 was up on the prior year, rising by around 4% to a total of €190m (2015: €183m). 58% of this amount was generated in Germany.
The lessor attributed its growth in originations and lease penetration to its updated service strategy; a new tech management platform; a data erasure program for leased assets at the end of their agreement, and the opening of new offices in Germany.
Service strategy
"The successful delivery of the service strategy, which we launched a few years ago, made a positive contribution to our business performance," said Wagner. CHG said the strategy allowed it to gain new customers and sell services to existing customers, which played a key role in the increase in lease originations.
In 2016, CHG launched a new version of its technology and service management system, called TESMA. CHG-Meridian said customers use this software to efficiently manage the commercial and technical data generated by their extensive IT infrastructures.
CHG said that its Enterprise Mobility Solutions (EMS) portfolio, services that focus on the efficient use of mobile devices, also helped CHG-Meridian to achieve further market penetration. The service was rolled out in Germany in 2015, and extended across Europe last year.
Data protection product
CHG’s data erasure service, which is tailored to a wide range of customer requirements, continued to be a factor of the company’s growth in 2016.
The number of IT devices that underwent erasure in compliance with TÜV or DEKRA standards rose by just over a third to reach a record level of more than 141,000 (2015: 106,000).
"Companies are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of data protection and data security and these figures show that our certified erasure service is ideally positioned to cater to this trend," said Wagner.
Using certified processes to erase sensitive data from used devices such as PCs, laptops, cell phones, and printers is one of the core tasks in the remarketing of assets. The number of assets remarketed by CHG-MERIDIAN remained at a high level last year. At the Company's Technology and Service Center near Frankfurt, it professionally refurbished around 495,000 items of IT equipment for the secondary market (2015: 490,000).
Two new sites in Germany
CHG-Meridian opened a new offices in 2016: the first in February in Stuttgart, in the southern German region of Baden-Württemberg, which will be followed by a further site in Bielefeld in the western region of North Rhine-Westphalia in March 2017.
In June 2016, CHG-Meridian opened a new building at its headquarters in Weingarten.
