The story
Founded in the Netherlands in 1963 following a joint venture between a bank and a company providing services to drivers, LeasePlan initially specialised in the open-book management model (an actual costs management system). LeasePlan expanded internationally in the 1970s by establishing operations in Belgium, Germany, France, and Great Britain.
In 1985, the banking group ABN-Amro acquired 100% of the shares in LeasePlan and founded a holding company named ABN-Amro Lease Holding. LeasePlan diversified its offer by introducing an online fleet management software package (Plan8, now called FleetReporting).
Responding to the trend in market consolidation, LeasePlan acquired several companies in the years following 2000 (Dial in Great Britain, in France, and in Italy, and CSC in the United States).
Since 1993 the company holds a banking license.
In 2003, the holding company of the LeasePlan Group was renamed LeasePlan Corporation.
In 2004, ABN-Amro sold LeasePlan Corporation to a consortium consisting of the Volkswagen Group (50%), The Olayan Group (25%), and Mubadala Development Company (25%). In 2009 German Metzler Bank took over the shares of the latter two companies.
In 2012 LeasePlan acquired the Italian car leasing activities of BBVA.
On 21 March 2016, an international consortium led by the Dutch Stichting Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn pension fund completed its acquisition of the company. In 2017, the company announced it was exploring strategic alternatives for the business, that included a potential initial public offering (IPO). However the IPO was cancelled in October 2018, with no further plans to bring the company public.
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On 6 January 2022 the French fleet rental and car leasing company ALD Automotive, the listed subsidiary of the French bank Société Générale announced an intention to acquire the company for 4.9 billion euros. The acquisition was completed in May 2023.
From Wikipedia’s article on LeasePlan, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5