On Thursday 6 January 2022, ALD Automotive signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to acquire Leaseplan, a fleet management and mobility company, for an for a total estimated to be €4.9 billion.
ALD automotive, a Société Générale subsidiary, is a full service leasing and fleet management services company operating across 43 countries, with 1.68 million vehicles under management as of September 2021, while LeasePlan had total fleet of 1.8 million vehicles under its management.
The proposed amalgamation of ALD and LeasePlan into NewALD is expected to be highly synergetic and create new opportunities to cross-leverage the two companies’ complementary capabilities. The increased size of NewALD would also provide with key advantages like global offering and coverage of all client categories, increased breadth in terms of products and services, and a balanced geographic coverage.
NewALD is expected to have at least 6% annual long term fleet growth post-integration and will target an improvement in cost-to-income ratio to circa 45% by 2025.
LeasePlan’s shareholders would together hold 30.75% of NewALD after the rights issue completion and combination, with twelve months lock-up period followed by another 24 month period with orderly sale provision.
Tim Albertsen, Chief Executive Officer of ALD, commented: "Today marks the beginning of a new chapter in our history as a first step towards creating NewALD. In the context of today’s transformation of the automotive and mobility sectors, which is proceeding at an unprecedented pace, this proposed transaction is instrumental in the creation of a leading global player in mobility."
By establishing new global partnerships around new services for electric vehicles, NewALD intends to accelerate the deployment of multicycle, flexible and multi-modality solutions to ensure sustainable mobility solutions.
Tex Gunning, Chief Executive Officer of LeasePlan said: "The combined business would be instrumental in moving the automotive industry from ownership to subscription models and zero- emission mobility. By joining forces with ALD, we combine the best talents in the industry with the investment power needed to meet the next generation mobility needs of our customers. From day one, NewALD would be operating one of the largest fleets of electric vehicles and will continue to set the standard for ESG i n the mobility industry."
At closing, expected by the end of 2022, Société Générale would hold circa 53% of of NewALD.
