NEWS

23Mar
2022

ALD Automotive Hungary: 20 years together!

ALD Automotive Hungary: 20 years together!

ALD Automotive recently announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to acquire 100% of LeasePlan for EUR 4.9 billion. The deal is huge and likely to have a major impact on the entire fleet and mobility market. 

 

ALD Automotive is a global leader in mobility solutions providing full service leasing and fleet management services across 43 countries worldwide to a client base of large corporates, SMEs, professionals and private individuals while places sustainable mobility at the heart of its strategy. The company (www.aldautomotive.hu) is not a newcomer in Hungary either, as started its operation in the country exactly 20 years ago. Nowadays succesfully operating a fleet of over 13.000 vehicles, serving over 1000  clients. We asked Olena TYMOFIYIVA – CEO of ALD Automotive Hungary about the acquisition and the evolution of the industry that has motivated this transaction.

Congratulations on the company’s 20th Anniversary in Hungary!

Our journey in Hungary since 2002 is a reflection of the evolution of mobility in the country. The search for sustainability and fleet efficiency have marked the path of ALD in these two decades, in which we have worked tirelessly to guarantee the mobility needs of all our clients. We are thankful to all of them for the trust shown in this period. With the perspective that the years give, and with a leading position in the market, the commitment to our customers has been and is key to growth and expansion without losing sight of road safety and the environment.

How ALD Hungary evolved during these years?

Since the local implementation, we have focused our efforts on meeting and satisfying the demands of the market. To do this, the company has known how to adapt to the different social contexts that have accompanied it in these two decades and has been updating the wide range of leasing and fleet management products and services. Nowadays, leasing is just a part of the equation, it is more appropriate to say that today’s ALD provides sustainable mobility services for companies.

In recent years, ALD has expanded its offer with services such as ALD Flex, a flexible leasing solution that adapts to business production peaks, combining the advantages of a complete lease with availability on demand, with the aim of helping customers to address their mobility needs in the medium term. ALD Release is also popular, to lease a reliable car on favorable terms by choosing a pre-leased car from our fleet. 

This type of products allow driver access to low-emission vehicles and state-of-the-art technology at affordable prices. In this term leasing functions as a renewing agent for the fleet of vehicles and the environmental impact is also lower.

In recent years lowering carbon footprint is key. How it affects your operation?

The world is changing and fleets need to change with it. Here at ALD we firmly believe that the future of mobility is electric. If the client is ready to make the switch to electric, tailored support is provided across all aspects of the electric journey, we help to manage the energy transition and encourage driver adoption. ALD Electric aims for a cleaner, brighter future while serving the different needs of the fleets. Fleet Managers can benefit from a tailored EV strategy and transition plan, while their company contributes to corporate CSR objectives (global warming and public health) by reducing carbon output. With our advisory support companies have access to charging facilities at home, at the office and on the road, are able to idetify the right powertrain options for their drivers and also renew their mobility policy to incorporate e-mobility from CO2 output to total cost of EV ownership.

As of our Move 2025 strategic plan, we want to be the global leader in sustainable mobility solutions, and place people and corporate social responsibility at the heart of the business model. Our sustainability approach for CSR, includes shaping the future of sustainable mobility, being a committed and responsible employer by raising the share of women in management bodies to 35%, implementing, and reducing the company’s internal environmental footprint by 30% by 2025 from 2019 levels.

Since 2018 ALD Automotive Hungary is evaluated by Ecovadis every year, assessing CSR and sustainable procurement. This result places our company among the top 25 percent of companies assessed by EcoVadis. Internally we pay attention to energy consumption, paper usage, transport of employees, waste management and water consumption. We lead a successfull forestration program in co-operation with WWF, in the passed years during our annual treeplanting sessions we contributed to the birth of over 20ha of forest in Hungary. We are a member of BCSDH to get recent updates related to sustainability initiatives, environmental and social projects in the country and to be able to share ALD Automotive knowledge and background, as well as network and participate in common projects.

There is always place for growth and development. Now the time has come to increase our capabilities, we recently announced worldwide the signing of a memorandum of understanding to acquire 100% of LeasePlan.

Why LeasePlan?

The acquisition is based on a strong strategic rationale and the complementarity of the two entities. LeasePlan is the perfect fit for ALD to shape the industry’s transformation as by fleet size it is one of the largest fleet management and mobility companies in the world with a global and extensive offering.

What will emerge from the acquisition of LeasePlan by ALD?

The contemplated combination of ALD and LeasePlan into ’NewALD’ represents a unique opportunity to create a leading global mobility player with a total fleet of 3.5 million vehicles worldwide and is expected to be highly synergetic and create an opportunity to cross-leverage the two companies’ complementary capabilities. NewALD would be able to benefit from a fast-growing market driven by strong underlying megatrends, including the: shift from ownership to usership on all fronts: B2B, B2C and even B2E4, data-driven digital transformation of the mobility industry and transition towards zero-emission and sustainable mobility.

This proposed transformative deal would represent a step-change towards creating a leading mobility player worldwide. The increased size of NewALD would provide it with key advantages: a global offering and coverage of all client categories, increased breadth in terms of products and services, and a balanced geographic coverage. These would enable NewALD to anticipate future market needs and meet client expectations with industry-leading operating efficiency and optimised procurement.

NewALD would be ideally positioned to embrace the mobility sector’s global growth megatrends and lead the digital transformation of the industry. By creating a fully digital business model it would be able to compete on service and cost with OEM captives and tech players entering the market, to capture the accelerated growth ahead. NewALD’s enhanced firepower to invest and develop new mobility products and ancillary services would allow it to build new digital business models based on core value chain competencies and state-of-the-art digital solutions across segments, products, and services.

Thanks to this proposed transaction NewALD would become a leading global provider of sustainable mobility solutions and the partner of choice for corporates to support the transition towards Electric Vehicles (EV). By establishing new global partnerships around new services for EV, NewALD would accelerate the deployment of multi-cycle, flexible and multi-modality solutions and ensure faster time-to-market for innovative sustainable mobility solutions.

Can you outline the next steps in the integration process?

Completing the integration effectively and within a short time frame from closing would enable the efficient generation of scale effects and synergies. Management’s main objectives would be to leverage best practices from both sides, maintain high quality of services to all clients with a strong focus on commercial dynamics and the creation of a common culture driving staff motivation.

NewALD would be led by Tim Albertsen, as CEO, who would be able to rely on two highly experienced management teams with deep pools of talent and successful technology integrations over the past years.

First, the interim operating model will be defined on a country-by-country basis. After closing – at the end of this year – the actual integration process will start to achieve our new global operating model. The target is the completion of the integration project in the top 12 countries within 18 months and an additional 12 months to complete the remaining countries by mid-2025. Rebranding the entity is also envisaged.

In the meantime, will ALD and LeasePlan compete or collaborate?

Until the deal closes, everything stays as is, we remain competitors. An Integration Management Office has been set up, is independent of both ALD and LeasePlan and would focus solely on achieving integration.

Meanwhile, both ALD and LeasePlan will still look after the customers, ensuring high service levels, and keep innovating, like we’ve always done.

source: several

author: Annamária KOLLER-NAGY - ALD Marketing Manager