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Leasing.99 (L.99), the listed German leasing company, would consider offers, CEO Norbert Bozon said. L.99 is specialized in car leasing and long term car rental and in addition offers insurance services for private and business clients. In 2006 L.99 closed 1187 leasing and long term rental contracts (up from 438 in 2005) and the target for 2007 is 2000, the CEO said. “We plan to achieve over 10000 contracts in the next 3 to 5 years”, he added.
Approximately 65% of the shares are held by the initial investors (Steiner Treuhand AG -49,8%), the advisory board and myself, Bozon said. 20% are controlled by roughly 3000 small investors and the remaining 15% is in the hands of six financial institutions, he added. “We will consider offers”, the CEO said explaining that he expects the company’s attractiveness to further increase in the future thanks to a higher number of contracts. As potential buyers he mentioned financial investors and banks.
Bozon explained that the key figure for the company valuation is the book value (bv). “Our stock trades at bv, much below the average sector multiple of 2.6x”, he said. “As we grow faster then the average leasing company our value should be higher, around 3x”, he added.
The CEO explained that the German leasing market is valued at approximately EUR 54 bn and indicated as the main players the leasing companies owned either by automotive producers or banks. The market is consolidating, he said and as an example mentioned the acquisition of LHS (Leasing und Handelsgesellschaft) by the BMW Group.
“Our focus is on organic growth”, the CEO said but added that L.99 is also interested in co-operation. The preferred model is a 50-50 joint venture. Top of the list are German companies with a book value up to L.99’s bv (approximately EUR 23m), he said. Bozon explained that they have been recently approached by a south German company. Talks are in progress, he added.
In 2006 L.99 reached a turnover of EUR 5.7m (+87% from 2005 figures), and an EBITDA of EUR 3.3m (+116%). Bozon explained that growth is financed by their banking partners but added that the company will ask (at the next AGM on May 14th) for approval to issue hybrid papers for EUR 20m (convertible debenture and Genußscheine). The money will strengthen the company’s financial independence, he added.
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