Macquarie invests £1.2m in leasing company XL Group

XL Group is targeting significant growth after winning an initial £1.2 million investment from Macquarie Corporate and Asset Finance.

The leasing company specialises in the short-term contract hire of executive cars and supercars to both corporate and private clients, and currently has more than 700 vehicles on its fleet.

The investment will see Macquarie’s vehicle finance team partner with XL’s management team to expand existing operations, not only through the equity investment, but with an initial £10m operating lease facility which may be extended to facilitate the anticipated growth of the business.

Steve Hampson, chairman of XL, said: “This investment presents an exciting opportunity for XL to expand and fortify its position as market leader in this specialist market place.

“We are looking to secure additional avenues into market in early 2019 and aiming to bring the number of cars on lease to more than 5,000 in the shortest timeframe possible.”

Macquarie has been active in the car leasing industry since 1998 and has built up a portfolio of more than 600,000 vehicles globally and is a leading vehicle financier in Australia.

Julian Liddy, regional head of asset finance in EMEA, said: “Having become a leading provider of vehicle finance in Australia, we are now looking to selectively expand the business into new markets and saw great potential to partner with XL in the UK.

“A key element of our vehicle finance strategy is based on the migration of customers from a ‘finance to own’ to a ‘finance to return’ model which XL already operates through its short-term contracts – and which we believe could be deployed across similar markets.”