Kelvin turns into Europlan
Yesterday details were released of the purchase by the leasing company Europlan, which is managed by Baring Vostok Capital Partners (BVCP) of 100% of ZAO Kelvin – the leasing subdivision of the automobile holding company Rolf. The sale of Kelvin wraps up the holding company’s involvement in leasing, although it has held onto the trade name Rolf Leasing.
Europlan (Delta Leasing until 2004) has been managed by BVCP since 2003. The company was previously owned by Delta Capital. Europlan leases equipment, transport and commercial property for small and mid-sized businesses and operates in 36 Russian regions. The company’s assets (total value of deals) amount to $55 million – twice as much as a year ago, with equity of $17 million (the fifth highest in the sector as of October 1, 2004).
BVCP is a management company for direct investment funds in Russia and the CIS with total capital of over $400 million and is a member of Baring Private Equity International - a management company for direct investment funds in 25 countries, with total capital of $2 billion.
The Rolf group of companies includes the general importers Mitsubishi Motors and Hyundai Motor, and Audi, Ford, Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi and Volvo dealers. Companies in the group account for 17% of foreign cars sold in Russia. The holding company’s turnover in 2003 amounted to $683 million, and will increase to $1.3 billion in 2004.
As Kommersant reported on Tuesday, the Rolf group decided to sell two non-core assets – the leasing company Kelvin, which has been operating since 1999, and a rental company. At the moment Kelvin has over 2,000 current automobile leasing contracts – this is the highest among Russian leasing companies. Yesterday Rolf President Matt Donnelly confirmed that the holding company no longer plans to be involved in the leasing business and Europlan will now provide services to Rolf clients.
The value of the deal has not been released. It is only known that after the acquisition of Kelvin, Europlan’s equity will increase to $27 million, and its assets will exceed $80 million.
Rolf CFO Michael Gleeson told Kommersant that, until now, Rolf was the only source of resources for Kelvin. According to the official site rolfleasing.ru, appreciation of the leased asset at that company amounts to 12% per year, while at Europlan it amounts to 7.4% (all other conditions for the deal being equal). Europlan President Nikolai Zinoviev told Kommersant that the terms of deals entered into by Kelvin earlier would remain unchanged. But after the change of owner the company will receive access to cheaper financial resources.
The sides agreed that Rolf will retain the right to the trade name Rolf Leasing, but will not be active on the leasing market. All new deals will be carried out under the Europlan umbrella. Source: Yekaterina Safarova, Kommersant, 23.12.2004 Back to Projects List 
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