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, BBVA Renting 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.

Cordero 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 realizing efficiencies and economies of scale."

LeasePlan, which raised more than a one billion euro (roughly more than 1.3 billion dollars) through several securitization 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.