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Transportation becomes more affordable to Ukrainian businesses
A €12 million EBRD financing package for vehicles leases
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is providing a €12
million loan to First Lease Ltd., the local vehicle fleet leasing market
leader which now operates as ALD Automotive, the vehicle fleet leasing
subsidiary of the major French financial group, Société Générale. Loan
proceeds will finance full service operating leases of passenger and light
commercial vehicles to Ukrainian companies.
The project will be particularly important for hundreds of Ukrainian SMEs,
which are an important part of ALD Automotive Ukraine’s customer base and
which will have a new way of financing vehicles that are essential for their
businesses. By providing operating leases, where the lessor takes care of
taxation, insurance and maintenance, ALD Automotive Ukraine will make life
easier for smaller companies that do not have the resources to manage their
vehicle fleets themselves.
Peter Stredder, Deputy to the EBRD Country Director for Ukraine, noted that
this is the first transaction where EBRD has financed a Ukrainian financial
institution that is not a bank. The EBRD will support the entry of the first
international vehicle fleet leasing company into Ukraine as well as well as
show its continuing support for SMEs in the country, he said.
By the end of 2009, ALD Automotive Ukraine plans at least to double its
vehicles fleet from today’s 2100 cars under hire. We would like to consolidate
our position as the leading vehicle fleet leasing company in Ukraine and the
EBRD loan is the first important step in this direction, said Frederic Hamain,
CEO of ALD Automotive Ukraine.
The vehicle leasing market in Ukraine has undoubtedly big potential as even a
market leader, ALD Automotive Ukraine, with a 40 percent market share leases
fewer than 40 cars per one million of population compared to over 2,000 per
million for the leading fleet leasing company in the UK.
As of January 1, 2006 the EBRD funded 77 projects in Ukraine for € 2.2
billion.
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