Stefan Duller, head of Hypo Alpe Adria Leasing, is keen to build
on his company’s determined entry into South Eastern Europe over
the past decade. In doing so, Brian Rogerson discovers, he has
stolen a lead on many of his competitors.
The youthful Stefan Duller has an eye for the unusual deal.
Several years ago, while working as a branch leasing manager at
Austrian company Hypo Alpe Adria Leasing, he took it upon himself
to do cross-border large-ticket deals into Hungary.
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No surprises, then, that since he took over as the head of Hypo
Leasing last year, he has focused some of his attention on
financing larger assets in small countries.
This July, for instance, following growing market demand for
sports aircraft, the Macedonian subsidiary of Hypo Leasing launched
into the aircraft leasing sector.
It came as a result of sector experience gained
throughout Austria, Slovenia and Serbia, and followed news that the
lessor currently has a 46 percent penetration of the total
Macedonian leasing market – and is likely to achieve a total of
around €60 million in advances by the end of 2008.
These moves come on the back of fairly healthy recent earnings.
Last year 50,251 new contracts were concluded with a volume of €2.7
billion (2006, €1.8 billion). This year-on-year increase of 43.3
percent confirms the company has grown, in a remarkably short time,
to be one of the leading lessors serving the extended Alps to
Adriatic region.
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By GlobalDataIts vehicle-leasing segment accounted for €924 million or 34
percent of total new financing, followed by real estate leasing of
€922 million (34 percent). Equipment leasing’s share was €869
million (32 percent.).
It currently operates in 70 locations, has 982 employees and
more than 72,000 customers.
Duller is determined to continue expansion, despite the
international economic downturn. New business locations are being
evaluated and he predicts that the company will maintain its focus
on ship and aircraft leasing, as well as on leasing products and
services for renewable energy projects.
“We are definitely looking to grow into another sizeable market
in the near future,” Duller says.
“We also see great potential in real estate leasing in Ukraine,
Serbia, Bosnia and Herzogovina,” he adds.
“In Austria, Germany and Bulgaria, the aim is to intensify
efforts to promote equipment leasing. This will also mean greater
partnership with manufacturers, dealers and insurance
companies.”
Duller, who, as Hypo Leasing head, is responsible for the
company’s businesses in Hungary, Macedonia, Bulgaria and the
Ukraine, and who also has responsibility for the audit, legal,
business development and financial services divisions at Hypo Alpe
Adria Leasing Holding, has come a long way quickly.
He joined the company in 1999, when he was studying for a
masters degree in European banking and finance.
“It was quite a challenge,” he recalls, “because much of the
time I was travelling around on business, but I needed to attend
university at least two days each week. At the time, I was living
in Vienna but working in Budapest.”
Prior to his arrival, Hypo Leasing had been going through its
own intense development. Half a decade before Duller joined the
company, Hypo Leasing was a small operation employing around 250
staff and operating from one branch in the Austrian province of
Corinthia.
Following the short-lived war of liberation in Slovenia, the
bank seized the opportunity to expand and became the first foreign
leasing company to operate in that country. This was followed by a
second office in Croatia in 1995 and then expansion by the bank
throughout the Balkan region.
Duller was promoted in 2001 to the post of branch manager at
Hypo Leasing in Vienna, with added responsibility for the Salzburg
and Linz branches. New business demand was led by the newly
liberated Balkan countries and he began cross-border leasing for
assets such as marine and aircraft business in even newer markets,
including Hungary. As business grew, Hypo Leasing became the
leasing leader in these specialised markets.
He recalls the challenges faced in the new market areas.
“Each country had its own legal jurisdiction,” he says, “and to
establish a sound business, we had to find partners of the correct
calibre.
“In 2006, we started operations in Bulgaria – and we now have
eight branches there and 125 employees. By the end of 2008. we
anticipate the Bulgarian operation to have around €550 million of
leases on its balance sheet from a standing start only two years
ago.”
By 2007, Duller had been appointed to the Leasing Holding
management board and was weighing up the prospects of opening in
the Ukraine. By the end of the year, the decision was made and the
company started leasing in a country with a population of 48
million and a market with enormous potential for growth.
Headquartered in Kiev, Duller made a host of business contacts
in the Ukraine and the company concluded a number of lease
agreements in its first month of operation.
There are around 3.8 million registered vehicles in the Ukraine,
and as a result Hypo Leasing has majored on vehicle finance,
including the commercial vehicle and trailer markets.
“Despite the political instability in the country, business is
booming and leasing is growing rapidly, although admittedly from
quite a low base,” he says.
“There were 1,000 lease agreements transacted in the country in
2005, this grew to 4,400 in 2007 – and we predict this will double
by the end of 2008. Our aim is to be in the top three leasing
companies in the Ukraine during 2008 and we are currently looking
for new offices in the eastern part of the country.”
Getting good staff is always a challenge for lessors starting up
in new markets.
“I try to focus on people with experience of corporate
business,” he says, “We liaise with the International Finance
Corporation, which gives us assistance with staff training and
suchlike.”
Duller’s desire to expand is in line with the strategic
direction of his key competitor in the CEE, UniCredit Leasing,
whose parent in recent weeks has decided to shift resources away
from Western Europe and to the east.
No doubt this is putting Duller, as well as other competitors of
his, under greater pressure. Contending with this, and the fact he
is entering markets with many layers of regulation, means he has
his work cut out for him. Nonetheless, with well-established
operations in less mature leasing markets, not only has the lessor
stolen a lead over some of its rivals, it is also likely to see
continued growth in its balance sheet and in the terms of new
business.
A day in the life
Duller lives quite close to his office in Klagenfurt,
Austria.
“I start work at different times depending upon which country I
am in,” he says.
“Mondays and Tuesdays are usually spent in the head office in
Klagenfurt and, generally, I am at my desk sometime between 7.30am
to 8am – and try to leave between 6pm and 7pm to be home in good
time for the evening meal with my girlfriend.
“Every second week I visit one of our new markets abroad.”
Wednesdays for Duller invariably mean spending the morning at
head office and flying from Vienna for a foreign visit.
On the way, he calls into the bank’s Vienna office to attend a
meeting or two. Then he is off to a destination such as Ukraine or
Macedonia.
The typical businessman’s toll of corporate lunches and sitting
in club-class seats is not for Duller. He works hard at his fitness
level and goes jogging, swimming and skiing in the Corinthian
mountains whenever possible.
He insists that his skiing prowess is only of “intermediate”
standing.
However, Hypo Leasing does sponsor Austrian skiing star Rainer
Schonfelder – a sponsorship that started in 2003 and which is,
according to Duller, one of the most effective sponsorships in
top-performance sport ever to have been established.
Schonfelder won the Slalom World Cup in 2004, followed by two
silver medals at the Ski World Cup in 2005 and two bronze medals at
the Olympic Games in Sestriere in 2006.
