Volksbank has financing funds of 50m euros

A new leasing company, Volksbank Leasing Romania, member of Volksbank Group, launched on the Romanian market yesterday. The company is planning to have more than 2000 contracts totalling 50 million euros this year, according to general manager Robert Schmidhofer.

Operating in Romania since October 2000, the Austrian company managed to conclude 7.1 million-DM (5 million euros) in contracts by the end of last year, while the total funding so far amounts to some 22.6 million DM (15 million euros).

The main business of the company in Romania consists of car and utility vehicle sales, but it also deals in construction machinery and real estate.

Its partners include importers and dealers of cars and utility vehicles in Romania: Automobile Bavaria (BMW, Rover, MAN), Romcar (Ford), Forum Auto (Volvo), Auto Italia (Fiat), Automobile Citroen, Eurial (Peugeot), Hyundai Auto Romania, Mazrom (Mitsubishi), Augusta Motors (SAAB), Renault VI, Ipso (Renault), Erebus and Di-Bas (Opel).

Volksbank Leasing has been operating in Romania since October 4, 2000 and has traded 200 vehicles worth 5 million euros by leasing contracts up to now.

“At present, we have 16 employees, and planning to hire more, up to 30-45 by the end of the year. Volksbank Leasing Romania is also planning to open branches in major cities across the country, such as Brasov, Cluj, Constanta and Iasi. The company will soon expand its business to medical equipment leasing and real estate leasing,” Robert Schmidhofer added.

Volksbank Leasing Romania manager estimates there is still a lack of fierce competition on the leasing market in Romania, which makes room for a possible entrance of powerful international companies on this market soon.

Volksbanken Leasing is a member of the Volksbanken Austria Group. Volksbanken AG Austria is also operating in the banking field in our country, having opened Volksbank Romania in May last year.

Although only at the beginning, Volksbank Romania has already gained quite an important market share in the retail segment, mainly by focusing on credits for natural persons.