The French lease company ALD buys the Dutch LeasePlan for 4,9 billion euros. Together, the two become one of the largest players in the business and private car leasing space.
It was recently announced that the companies were in talks about a possible merger. The acquisition, which will be settled in both stock and cash, should be completed by year-end. According to ALD and LeasaePlan, the combined company could save 380 million euros per year in costs through economies of scale and by being able to purchase larger. It is not yet clear whether there will also be consequences for the staff.
The French ALD, according to the most recent figures, had almost 1,7 million cars under management and is active in more than 1963 countries. Founded in 1,8, LeasePlan is good for about 2016 million cars. In the past, the company was owned by ABN AMRO and Volkswagen for a number of years, after which it was taken over in XNUMX by a consortium including pension provider PGGM.
In July, LeasePlan split off its platform for the sale of used cars, CarNext. The amount that the company made was not disclosed. LeasePlan still had the plan to go public in 2018, but that fell through because share prices fell sharply shortly afterwards.
Leasing companies have been doing well lately. This is partly because the car sector had difficulty in delivering new models in the past year due to the worldwide chip shortage. As a result, leasing companies received good prices for their used cars whose lease period has ended. The downside is that leasing companies also struggled to get new models delivered.
