Mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcies on the leasing market

Competition on the Romanian leasing market will put small companies out of business in the medium term. Whether it comes in the form bankruptcies or mergers and acquisitions, the Romanian leasing market is set to become polarised over the next few years. “There’s already an interest rates war going on in Romania. Some companies have started to sell their portfolios and this trend will become even more visible in the medium term. By 2007, few players will have managed to survive, and many smaller players will no longer exist on the market,” Dan Emil Stoica, vice-chairman of the Association of Leasing Companies in Romania (ASLR), said during the ‘Leasing Market’ conference. If they are not acquired by a major domestic or international company, the only option left to small companies is to specialise. “Small companies will run into a lot of difficulties getting access to good funding terms. The only thing they can do in the circumstances is to specialise in certain fields like agriculture or the IT industry,” explained Melih Mengu, chairman of UniCredit Leasing and vice-chairman of the Banking Leasing Association (ALB). He believes that once Romania joins the EU in 2007, more and more international players will enter the market. ZF