February brought changes among the Bulgarian leasing companies. On 04.02.2019 in the Commercial Register officially SoGe Lease Bulgaria EOOD ceased to exist and was renamed to OTP Leasing EOOD.
Societe Generale Equipment Finance is the leading leasing companyA company whose main activity is... More in Europe, competing for the first place on the continent with another French leasing giant – BNP Paribas Leasing Solutions. The loss of a leading leasing companyA company whose main activity is... More is sad news for the Bulgarian leasing market.
The process of reconsidering the presence of the French Societe Generale in SEE began in 2017. The Bank has decided to close its operations in countries where there is does not hold a leading market share, namely Bulgaria, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, and Moldova. In 2018 the Bulgarian subsidiaries (bank and leasing) were sold to the Hungarian financial group and the owner of DSK Bank – OTP.
However, the news is not all bad. After the sale of Expressbank and SoGe Lease to OTP, the presence of ALD Automotive (the subsidiary of Societe Generale, specialized in operating leases and the undisputed leader in Europe in this market segment) is preserved in Bulgaria. Another good news is that the management of SoGe Lease is also preserved and transferred to OTP Leasing, namely Mihail Kommitski and Borislav Petkov. And last, but not the least good news, is that a new big leasing group emerged in Bulgaria – OTP Leasing and DSK Leasing, which already have a common owner.
So we can say, “Farewell SoGe Lease and Welcome OTP Leasing.”
A good further read on the topic: “CEE Banking: Go Big or Go Home“, Euromoney
