This week’s fleet news, including Leaseplan buying BBVA’s Italian business, Lex’s green initiative for Siemens, and a new fleet remarketing manager at Toyota.
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LeasePlan acquires BBVA Italian business
Fleet and vehicle management company LeasePlan has signed an agreement to take over the fleet and leasing business of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA).
The acquisition of two entities, BBVARenting and BBVA Autorenting, will add 20,500 vehicles to LeasePlan’s Italian leasing portfolio. The lessor said the acquisition supports its selective growth strategy, and managing director Alfonso Martinez Cordero added it represented "one of the few growth opportunities available in the highly competitive Italian leasing market."
LeasePlan will be refinancing the business with its own funding, and the transaction is expected to be completed in early 2013, subject to customary closing conditions.
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By GlobalDataCordero said the acquisition gave LeasePlan "access to an attractive portfolio of both large corporations and small companies," allowing the company "to continue to add value to our clients by realising efficiencies and economies of scale."
LeasePlan, which raised more than a 1bn through several securitisation transactions in 2012 and raised further funding through its Netherlands-based deposit bank, said it could not disclose any monetary figure relating to the transaction.
Lex to provide Siemens with low emission fleet
UK fleet provider Lex Autolease has provided Siemens’ Energy Service Renewable’s division with a fleet of low-emission Toyota Hi Lux vehicles.
The vehicles, including 50 new and 70 retrofitted vans, are intended to cut the division’s carbon emissions by a third, and will initially be used in Scotland before being deployed across the country.
Lex worked with partner QI Van Systems and Siemens to establish the fleet requirements, which included fuel efficiency to lower emissions and running costs, as well as safety in the field and carrying capacity for equipment.
Richard Luijendijk, director of Siemens Service Renewables UK and Ireland, said: "Siemens has a strong focus on sustainable transport, including the introduction of electric vehicles into its fleet and other incentives to help improve its carbon footprint. In this key project we were focused on achieving both environmental and efficiency benefits".
Toyota appoints Broad as fleet manager
Toyota, and its luxury car division Lexus, has appointed Neil Broad as general manager for Fleet and Vehicle Remarketing Service, replacing Ewan Shepherd, who is now general manager for Sales Operations.
Broad joined Toyota in 1998 as a sales operations manager before landing a head office role as Sales and Marketing programmes manager in 2002. He became manager of Toyota Centre Marketing Services in 2004, National Franchising manager in 2009, and joined the fleet team in 2011 as manager of Marketing and Fleet Programmes.
Broad said of his appointment, effective from 3 December: "As we approach the end of 2012 with fleet sales up more than 14% year-on-year, my role is to ensure we maintain momentum. The great news for 2013 is the introduction of new Auris. My challenge is to improve fleet awareness of this great British-built car and attract new customers to the brand."
