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On the Russian road: leased trucks ready to roll
EBRD backing brings high-quality vehicles to smaller businesses
The EBRD is helping to put more high-quality western vehicles on Russia’s
roads – and boost the country’s fledgling transport leasing market – through a
€20 million framework facility which will finance leases of buses, trucks and
vans manufactured by the DaimlerChrysler group to its Russian customers.
The framework will allow OOO DaimlerChrysler Services Leasing Avtomobili
(DCSLA), a Russian leasing subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler AG, one of the
largest automotive companies in the world, to expand its operations in Russia.
DCSLA was set up in 1999 to provide transport leasing services to local
clients in Russia.
This project is based on risk sharing between DCSLA, the Bank and ZAO
Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA), incorporated in Russia. The Bank and RBA will
each assume 30 per cent of the risk of each individual lease (which may last
up to five years) or up to €6 million altogether. By taking on part of
DaimlerChrysler’s overall exposure, the EBRD will help a larger number of
small and medium sized Russian companies benefit from leasing, thus
modernising the vehicle fleet. This is in line with the Bank’s Russia
strategy, which calls for more projects with universal leasing companies and
with companies targeting specific sectors.
Leasing instruments have high potential to play an important role in the
growth of small and medium-size businesses in Russia, providing cheaper and
more flexible access to more sophisticated equipment manufactured to
international standards. In developed economies, smaller firms make up to half
of their investment in large assets through leasing. But in Russia, leasing,
as yet, accounts for only 4.3 per cent of such investments. By encouraging
more western companies to be directly involved in leasing on Russian markets,
competition will be encouraged and consumers given broader choice.
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