October 4 (SeeNews) - The Romanian unit of Switzerland’s Impuls Leasing International said on Thursday it aims to sign 10,000 contracts worth 150 million euro ($211.5 million) next year under its short-term growth strategy.
IMPULS-Leasing Romania was set up last December and signed its first leasing contract in April this year. Since then it has signed 4,700 contracts worth 60 million euro and expects to end the year with a total of 8,000 deals worth 100 million euro, the company said in a statement.
“It is a realistic forecast because usually the last quarter is the best for the leasing companies,” IMPULS-Leasing Romania director general Razvan Diaconescu said in the statement.
The company also aims to enter the top 10 of Romanian leasing companies by the end of 2009. It expects the local leasing market to reach some five billion euro this year. The market grew by 62% to 3.27 billion euro in 2006.
IMPULS-Leasing Romania has offices in six cities, including the capital Bucharest. It plans to open an office in Craiova, southwestern Romania, by year’s end, and another four in 2008.
“We do not plan to expand further than that. We operate by principles somewhat different compared to other companies. We focus on decentralisation, IT systems, speed, flexibility and services quality,” Diaconescu said.
Some 70% of the leasing contracts signed by IMPULS-Leasing Romania so far were for the purchase of passenger cars and commercial vehicles, 25% for trucks and trailers, and 5% for equipment.
“In the mid-term we want to balance the portfolio in order to cut the commercial vehicles financing and raise the deal for equipment and real estate leasing,” added.
($ = 0.7093 euro)