Europlan buys part of Rolf

Europlan buys part of Rolf

The company Europlan, which is managed by Baring Vostok Capital Partners, has bought the leasing subdivision of the Rolf group of companies – one of the largest sellers of new foreign cars in Russia. With this acquisition, Europlan hopes to become the leader on the automobile leasing market and one of the top five leasing companies in the country.

Europlan was set up in 1999 (formerly known as Delta Leasing) and was acquired by Baring Vostok Capital Partners in November 2003. Europlan assets exceed $55 million. Since its creation the company has been involved in over 1,800 leasing projects. The Rolf group of companies includes the exclusive importers (distributors) Mitsubishi Motors and Hyundai Motor, and Audi, Ford, Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Volvo dealers. According to group figures, sales of foreign cars in 2004 will amount to 60,000 (17% of the market); group turnover in 2003 amounted to $683 million, and is expected to increase to $1.3 billion in 2004.

“We deal in automobile leasing, but [until now] it was a secondary business for us,” Europlan President Nikolai Zinoviev said. “This is a very interesting area and we want to become a leader on the market for automobile leasing by acquiring the company Kelvin [the leasing division of the Rolf group} with a large fleet of cars, and hope to become one of the top five leasing companies,” he said. Kelvin was set up in 1998 and to date, according to the company, has signed leasing contracts for more than 4,000 vehicles. When the deal was carried out the company’s leasing portfolio amounted to over 2,000 automobiles, with assets of over $29 million.

“The leasing company was set up as an instrument to expand automobile sales and in five years has become one of the largest players in its sector,” Rolf representative Valery Tarakanov said. “But its development requires expanded capital and specific knowledge, experience and technology in an area which is not a key area for us,” he said. Therefore, he said that it was decided to sell the non-core business to Europlan, with whom an agreement was signed to provide the group’s dealers with automobile leasing services for Rolf clients. Rolf plans to use the funds received to invest in its core business, particularly in the construction of new dealerships. The cost of the deal has not been released. Igor Ponomarev, financial director at Genser group – a major seller of foreign cars, estimated that it did not exceed $5 million. Avangard Leading General Director Alexander Kozhevnikov agrees with this estimate, true – with the proviso that “nothing else is being acquired in addition to the established business.” “It is likely that the buyer took into consideration that Kelvin is not a universal, but a captive company, aimed primarily at helping sales for Rolf, which specializes in certain foreign cars,” Ponomarev said. Zinoviev considers Kelvin to be a market company” “About 30% of the company’s portfolio consists of automobiles acquired from other dealers, even ones competing with Rolf.” He said that the deal cost “significantly more” than $5 million.

Source: Svetlana Petrova, Vedomosti, 23.12.2004

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