LeasePlan has revealed that it is holding discussions with ALD Automotive and Société Générale regarding a potential merger between the two firms.

While both companies have confirmed the talks, a joint statement from LeasePlan & ALD read: “There can be no certainty at this stage that these discussions will result in any agreement or transaction. Further announcements will be made when appropriate according to applicable laws.”

Both companies have been active in the market recently, with ALD recently acquiring Fleetpool in Germany, while LeasePlan’s used car market CarNext recently raised €400m in a bid to become Germany’s largest online used marketplace by the end of the year.

LeasePlan currently has approximately 1.8m vehicles under management in 29 countries around the world. The company purchases, funds and manages new vehicles for customers, and is committed to taking a leadership role in the transition to zero-emission mobility and has set itself the ambitious goal of achieving net-zero emissions from its funded fleet by 2030.

ALD has operations in 43 countries globally with 1.7m customer contracts, offering fleet management and long-term vehicle solutions. The company has a target of 2.3m contracts by 2025 and plans to invest €66m in digital capabilities over the next five years.

Despite the global shift towards green financing, UK asset financiers may find it difficult to become standard-bearers for ESG financing, according to two leasing professionals from Metro Bank and Simply Asset Finance.

Commenting on the eve of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October, Lauren McQuilken (business development director, asset finance) for Metro Bank and Alexandra McWilliams (broker support manager) for Simply Asset Finance, agreed that the emerging dangers from a warming planet would require professionals to “think creatively” and “on their feet” about how to provide green solutions for their customers as calls for green solutions increase.

McWilliams and McQuilken made the comments during a discussion with Lindsay Town, the CEO of IAA-Advisory, as part of LTi's UK Future Leaders talks.

Asked what they thought were the future themes for the asset finance industry, McWilliams identified “green financing and green energy” as significant and growing areas of funding. “As businesses, we have to think about whether we can contribute to [ending] the environmental crisis … and what we can do internally and how we can help UK SMEs become more environmentally friendly and adapt to the changes that are going to be necessary for businesses to run,” McWilliams said.

IDS, a provider of in-the-cloud technology to the secured finance sector, and its acquired companies, William Stucky and Associates and White Clarke Group, have announced the launch of a new company identity: Solifi.

"The new brand and visual identity bring together innovative solutions, deep industry expertise, global reach, and a unified technology platform designed to enable our customers to deploy capital to power global commerce," a company press release said.

David Hamilton, CEO, Solifi (formerly IDS), said: “We are very excited to unveil our new brand. Our goal in rebranding to Solifi was to capture our vision of an integrated technology ecosystem that helps our customers connect capital to potential.

“A key aspect of our mission is to help our customers serve their customers better. By bringing together market-leading secured finance solutions onto a single platform, we are uniquely positioned to help our customers tap into market opportunities and achieve their growth goals.”

Thoma Bravo, a software-focused private equity investment firm, bought IDS in October 2019 from Somers Investment Partners (SIP), formerly SV Investment Partners.

A.J. Rohde, senior partner, Thoma Bravo, said: “Our investment in IDS, now Solifi, was based on the potential we saw to unlock significant value for companies in the secured finance market."

The European Investment Bank (EIB) and DLL Ireland have agreed to an €80m green business investment initiative “set to accelerate the adoption of low energy and low emission equipment and machinery by companies across Ireland,” DLL said in a press release. The cooperation aims to stimulate new investments to reduce energy use and cut emissions and costs. See Inside the Deal.

Q3 in the UK delivered the best performance in terms of recovery to pre-pandemic volumes since the crisis began, recovering to 90% of typical volumes for this time of year in the UK, according to the Acquis Insurance index. The UK’s restaurant and retail equipment have recovered less quickly.

The agricultural division of Haydock Finance has launched a product for the UK dairy sector. Dairy Cattle Finance “includes refinancing and has been designed to support British farmers with their cattle purchasing and cash flow requirements,” the provider said during an Agri Finance webinar unveiling to its broker partners.