THE European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is planning to lend E12 million to the Ukraine’s First Lease, a Kiev-based vehicle fleet leasing company.

The loan will expand its leasing of passenger and light commercial vehicles to Ukrainian companies, with a significant part of the loan being used to finance leases to small and medium-sized businesses.

The main objective, said an EBRD note, ‘is to support the development of vehicle fleet leasing in the Ukraine’.

First Lease was recently acquired by ALD International SA, part of France’s Société Générale Group. First Lease was established in July 1999 to undertake corporate vehicle leasing and has operated under the Hertz franchise since 2001. This expansion project would be entirely funded by the EBRD loan.