Volkswagen, Dutch Partner To Sell LeasePlan

In a 12-month run of change that has upended the previous makeup of the fleet management company landscape, another change has just taken place.

German car giant Volkswagen and Dutch company Fleet Investments are set to sell global fleet management company LeasePlan Corp for about $5.42 billion.

The sale to a consortium of pension funds, global investment companies, and private equity firms was expected by the end of this year, pending approval by regulatory and anti-trust authorities.

LeasePlan has about 1.5 million vehicles under contract in 32 countries, with a workforce of more than 6800.

The group of prospective buyers includes investment bank Goldman Sachs, the Dutch and Danish pension funds, and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, LeasePlan said in a statement.

The agreement comes three months after talks with buyers were terminated because of regulatory issues. Private equity firm TDR Capital was the front-runner before talks fell apart in April. At the time, LeasePlan said its owners had no plans to further pursue a sale.

In late-2014, prior to the first volley of sale discussions, Element Financial scooped up PHH Arval, and recently Element purchased GE Capital's fleet operations.

NAFA will continue to monitor these events to determine how this will affect fleets and NAFA members.