Market awaits new lease of life

Leaving the security of her job at Raiffeisen Leasing and going it alone in the industry was not an easy decision. But Anca Greu has significant experience to draw on – and is hoping that this will see her firm, Acces Finance Leasing Broker, through the choppy economic waters and emerge to double its turnover.

Anda Sebesi

For Anca Greu, general manager of Acces Finance Leasing Broker, the leasing industry has always been a major professional challenge, and she decided to set up her own firm in this field in 2004. “Although I founded my company in December 2004, it became operational two and a half years later in June 2006, once I stopped working for Raiffeisen Leasing as an employee. Setting up my own business in the leasing industry was the perfect challenge for me. It gave me the opportunity to continue my professional journey in this field as an entrepreneur and in cooperation with several leasing companies,” says the young entrepreneur. In addition to her job satisfaction, she benefited from rapid personal development, as she started to gain experience by promoting multiple leasing products and services.

Her career has helped her a lot in developing her own business, as the entrepreneur worked for many years in the financial industry as contract manager, chief of the contract department and senior relationship manager for Raiffeisen Leasing. The courage to set up her own business proved well founded. Greu wanted to be a player on the leasing brokerage market and was soon enjoying success. “The growth was gradual with the portfolio of customers exceeding my expectations. We posted a turnover of about EUR 300,000 in 2008 – from brokerage services alone – and a profitability rate of about 50 percent,” remembers the businesswoman.

Acces Finance Leasing Broker’s target was very clear: companies, which counted for 95 percent of its portfolio. “Leasing brokerage was a very good sales channel for some leasing companies that saw the potential at that time. It was very hard for me to stop working with the team from Raiffeisen Leasing and I realize that I was risking a lot when I decided to give up working as an employee to become an entrepreneur,” she says. “Now I can say that after the first two months of activity, I knew that I had made the right decision. Plus, the potential I had foreseen initially proved to be greater than I had expected.”

But the economic turmoil hit her company very badly at the beginning of 2009, when the business contracted up to 90 percent because of a major reduction in the number of active partners and investments in the local economy. “Only one-two partners out of 15 leasing companies that were collaborating with us continued to finance new transactions in 2009,” says Greu. “But we are still on the market, balanced and offering the same quality of services, seeing a slow increase in demand and resuming cooperation with some of our old partners – leasing companies.”

Greu says that from September 2008 there were plenty difficult moments because of the cautious behavior of leasing companies. But despite the hard times and all the challenges, she has held onto her core beliefs: “I still think that healthy principles and adjusting your business to the legal, fiscal and political environment is the only way to achieve long term success.”

If she started another business Greu probably wouldn’t change anything because she is mature enough as a professional to understand that each business has its negative and positive sides. “You need to be wise and patient. I have always been a supporter of the bright side of people’s mistakes. There are imperative and give your business a significant impetus,” says the entrepreneur.

Speaking about the main challenges for her business, she says that her position as mediator between lender, customer and dealer is a real challenge as their expectations are different and sometimes even opposed. “Besides, it is about promoting leasing brokerage on an emerging market where there are many customers who need the way this process works to be explained to them,” she says.

As for future plans, Greu says that the current goal for her company is to pass through the current economic crisis by trying to research, prepare and develop new opportunities. “I am considering the potential of consultancy for accessing EU funds and developing the approved projects. I intend to create partnerships with lenders for corporate credit and to develop a territorial network in the main cities of Romania on the long term. This goal has been on stand-by since 2008,” she concludes.

anda.sebesi@business-review.ro

Acces Finance Leasing Broker

Established: 2004

Operational: 2006

2008 estimated turnover: EUR 300,000

2009 estimated turnover: EUR 40,000

2010 estimated turnover: EUR 50,000

2011 estimated turnover: EUR 120,000

Number of employees:

5 and 30 collaborators

Initial investment: EUR 10,000

Total investment: EUR 95,000