February 22 (SeeNews) - The International Finance Corporation (IFC) said it will invest $400 million (426.2 million euro) in Ald Automotive, the car leasing unit of French financial services group Societe Generale, to help the firm expand its fleet of green vehicles in seven countries including five in Southeast Europe.
The new financing, arranged by Societe Generale, will enable Ald to add 15,000 hybrid, plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles (EVs) to its fleet in Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Turkey, Mexico and India, IFC, part of the World Bank Group, said in a statement earlier this week. The goal is to cut carbon emissions by 22,180 tonnes a year across all targeted markets by 2026.
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"This financial partnership will further strengthen our sustainable mobility strategy in emerging markets where adoption of low-emission vehicles remains quite low and enable us to accelerate the transition to green vehicles to fight climate change on a global scale," Ald CEO Tim Albertsen said.
The investment deal, which is IFC's largest one-off EV investment, is also expected to help advance Ald's core Move 2025 strategy, which aims to promote sustainability in customer fleet management, with a focus on battery electric vehicles.
Ald Automotive, which is listed on Euronext, is owned at 76% by Societe Generale. The car leasing company commanded a 23% share of the EV passenger car deliveries market in the EU, UK, Norway and Switzerland last year, with EVs making up 35% of Ald's order book, its most recent annual report shows.
Ald entered Bulgaria in 2014 and remained on the market after the acquisition of Societe Generale Expressbank by DSK Bank, part of OTP Group, in 2019. Elsewhere in SEE, the company is active in Greece and Slovenia.
($ = 0.9385 euro)