KBC Lease, the leasing division of the Belgian financial group KBC finalized on March 29th 2007 the purchase procedure for the entire share package of INK Broker, the seventh important insurance broker in Romania . With this 70 million Euros transaction, KBC Lease also took over the quota of 99.34% of the shares of Romstal Leasing, the biggest independent leasing company in Romania.
This way, KBC takes an important step towards the achieving of the objectives in relation to the development of the activity in Central and Eastern Europe.
Romstal Leasing is a member of the KBC Lease Holding NV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of KBC Bank NV which in turn is a subsidiary of the KBC Group NV. KBC Lease Holding NV conducts a European network of leasing companies offering general leasing, real estate leasing, but also full-service leasing and pan-European Vendor Finance.
KBC Lease has around 1,500 employees and operates in 15 countries in Western and Southern Europe occupying top positions on markets such as: Belgium, Central and Eastern Europe.
In Central and Eastern Europe, KBC Lease is presented through CSOB Leasing (Czech Republic and Slovakia), K&H Leasing Group (Hungary) and Kredyt Lease (Poland). KBC Lease occupies top positions on the leasing market in the Czech Republic (No. 1 with a market share of 15%), in Slovakia (No. 1 with a market share of 17%), in Hungary (No. 6 with a market share of 8%) and Poland (less than 1% of the market share).
From the experience of the Belgian group on the financial, insurance and leasing markets, KBC expects that in the new Member States of the European Union the market develop above average. The banking financial group considers the Romanian market as one of the most important in the Central and Eastern Europe, because the demands for financial services of the companies and of the population will record a significant development.
Ink Broker is a consultancy and brokerage company in the insurance field being ninth of 247 in the ranking of the insurance companies on the Romanian market. The insurance broker represents the Insurers Allianz-Tiriac, Ardaf, Asiban, Asito Kapital, Asirom, Aviva, BCR Asigurari, Generali, Interamerican, Omniasig and Unita and in 2006 it has intermediated insurance premiums of 9.8 million Euros, thus recording a market share of 3%.
Ink Broker is one of the first insurance companies to offer its services also online, in order to reduce the clients’ waiting times when requesting a quotation or when wanting to receive information regarding the active insurance policies. Ink Broker offers to all the clients the opportunity that, by accessing their own client accounts, be able to view their policies on the www.inkbroker.ro website as well as the opportunity to follow-up the payments of the insurance premiums to the insurers.
According to this policy and in completion of the range of services offered, Ink Broker offers the service of the Casco and RCA policies conclusion online completed by the option of requesting that the insurance policy concluded online be delivered at the clients’ residence in order to save time and money.
Another incentive offered to our clients is the possibility to conclude a health insurance online, through the simple procedure of filling-out a form available on our website. Upon receipt of such a request from our clients, within two working days they get possession of a personalised health insurance offer in accordance to the clients’ requirements and needs.
The intermediation and advice offered by Ink Broker do not influence the prices set, which are at most at the level set by the insurance companies in the direct relationship with the final client.
For year 2007 we estimate the following financial results: a net profit of 3.75 million lei and insurance premiums intermediation in amount of 47.9 million lei.
In order to meet our clients’ requirements, we intend to open this year another working point in Bucharest and other four in the country. As a medium term objective, it is envisaged the opening of a working point in all the cities where Romstal Leasing IFN is present together with which we are proud to be part of KBC Lease.