VR Smart Finance
| VR Smart Finanz AG | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Corporation |
| founding | 1972 |
| Seat |
Eschborn , Germany
|
| management | Board:
Chairman of the Supervisory Board:
|
| Number of employees | 634 (2018) |
| Branch | Financial service providers |
| Website | www.vr-smart-finanz.de |
| As of January 1, 2020 | |
The VR Smart Finanz AG (short: VR Smart Financial ) is a 100 percent subsidiary of DZ Bank and is part of the cooperative financial network . There it is a subsidiary partner of the cooperative banks for financing solutions in SME financing. The range of services includes leasing , hire purchase and credit as well as digital services for everyday financial life. The core target group are medium-sized companies as well as the business and commercial customers of the cooperative banks. The company owns the VR Smart Finanz Bank GmbH as a wholly owned subsidiary. The company has its headquarters in Eschborn and two locations in Berlin and Unterföhring.
history
Starts as AMG Allgemeine Mietgesellschaft in Mörfelden
VR Smart Finanz AG began in 1972 with around 35 employees in Mörfelden as AMG-Allgemeine Mietgesellschaft mbH + Co. In addition to the founders Dietrich Walther and Horst Wüstkamp, one of the shareholders was the Deutsche Genossenschaftskasse (later DG Bank, now DZ Bank ). AMG had several subsidiaries and holdings, including BFL Bürofachhandel Leasing GmbH & Co. KG (founded in 1973) and LFG Leasing- und Finanz GmbH. In the early 1980s, AMG ran into economic difficulties. Dietrich Walther and Horst Wüstkamp sold their shares to the cooperative banks. Bedo Panner followed as a restructuring engineer from DG Bank. As a result, only a few of the many subsidiaries remained, such as the Volksbanken-Leasing-Gesellschaft with limited liability in Unterföhring or the Deutsche Genossenschafts-Leasing GmbH based in Frankfurt am Main.
1990s: Consolidation of all cooperative leasing activities and expansion abroad
In the 1990s, a reorientation began under the leadership of the chairman of the management (later chairman of the board) Reinhard Gödel. At the beginning of 1995, all movables leasing companies were combined under the umbrella of a single company, VR-Leasing GmbH (VR Leasing for short). The employees from the previous locations in Frankfurt moved to the new head office in Eschborn, which was officially inaugurated on April 21, 1995. Since the mid-1990s, VR Leasing's foreign activities have been increasing, mainly in Central and Eastern European markets. In the course of this, the foreign companies Lombard Lízing in Hungary, FB Leasing in Russia and the cooperative VBLI in Vienna with its various subsidiaries in Eastern Europe followed. In 1998 VR Leasing was converted into a stock corporation. The main shareholders were the cooperative central banks, such as DG BANK with almost 49 percent, as well as WGZ, SGZ and GZB banks.
2000s: Takeover of VR Diskontbank and VR Factorem
At the beginning of 2002, VR Diskontbank GmbH (VR Diskontbank for short), which, as a specialist bank, offered its services as well as sales financing and central settlement, in particular to medium-sized companies and purchasing cooperatives, became a wholly-owned subsidiary of VR Leasing. The factoring activities of VR Diskontbank were spun off in 2003 to a separate company, VR Factorem GmbH (VR Factorem for short). VR Factorem became a 100% subsidiary of VR Leasing in 2010. At that time, the group of companies included VR Bauregie GmbH, which offered construction supervision services, VR-Immobilien-Leasing GmbH and BFL Leasing Bürofachhandel GmbH. At the turn of the year 2010/2011 there was a change at the top of the company. The chairman of the board, Reinhard Gödel, left the company for health reasons at the end of 2010, followed by Theophil Graband, who had previously been chairman of the board of the Nuremberg-based TeamBank for many years.
Strategic realignment as a subsidiary partner of the cooperative banks and appearance as a new brand
The global financial crisis of 2007/2008 also had an impact on the business development of the VR Leasing Group. The foreign holding companies collapsed significantly in the course of the economic deterioration and led to several years of losses. In 2011, a fundamental strategic reorientation of the company followed with a concentration of business activities on domestic business and the reduction of business areas not classified as sustainable (e.g. real estate business and construction supervision). For example, new business in real estate leasing was discontinued and international activities were gradually reduced. In the years that followed, the VR-Leasing Group concentrated more and more on a subsidiary business approach, i.e. primarily on supporting the cooperative banks. To this end, the company increasingly specialized in digitally-supported, simple financing solutions in order to support the cooperative banks with suitable financing solutions in view of the emerging wave of digitization. At the end of 2017, the decision was finally made to focus exclusively on business with the cooperative banks as a digital commercial customer financer in the future and at the same time to sell the central settlement business area and the affiliated companies BFL Leasing GmbH and VR-Immobilien-Leasing GmbH. The sales were fully realized in the first half of 2019. Since July 2018, the business areas with a focus on SME financing with the Volks- and Raiffeisenbanken have appeared under the brand identity VR Smart Finanz. In July 2019 VR Leasing Aktiengesellschaft was renamed VR Smart Finanz AG, and VR Discount Bank was renamed VR Smart Finanz Bank GmbH. At the end of 2019, the composition of the board of directors of VR Smart Finanz AG changed. Theophil Graband, previously CEO, retired on December 31, 2019. He is succeeded by Markus Klintworth, who was appointed as the new CEO on January 1, 2020. With him, Kerstin Scholz completes the board, which will be reduced to two members from 2020. Board member Ian Lees has not renewed his contract, but will take on new professional challenges.
Products
The range of services of VR Smart Finanz includes leasing, hire-purchase and credit solutions for medium-sized customers of the Volksbank and Raiffeisenbanken as well as digital services for everyday financial matters such as the accounting software VR Smart Guide and the creditworthiness manager, with which corporate customers can check and optimize their creditworthiness online.
Key figures
VR Smart Finanz AG closed the 2018 financial year with a slightly positive result before taxes, with renewed growth in the online financing business having a particularly positive effect. The company has 650 employees at three locations.
VR Smart Finanz AG is a member of the Federal Association of German Volksbanken Raiffeisenbanken (BVR), in the Federal Association of German Leasing Companies . as well as at the Research Society for Cooperative Affairs in Münster eV The VR Smart Finanz Bank GmbH is a member of the German Banking Association.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ VR-Leasing Aktiengesellschaft: Annual financial statements as of December 31, 2018 . In: Bundesanzeiger , May 16, 2019.
- ↑ Online Annual Report of VR Smart Finanz 2018
- ↑ a b Annual Report VR-Leasing GmbH 1995
- ↑ Annual report VR-Leasing AG 1998
- ↑ Annual report VR-Leasing AG 2010
- ↑ BVR press release
- ↑ Entry in the commercial register from July 10, 2019
- ↑ Entry in the commercial register from 07/11/2019
- ↑ Generation change in the board of directors of VR Smart Finanz AG: Dr. Markus Klintworth succeeds Theophil Graband. In: press release. VR Smart Finanz, September 16, 2019, accessed on January 9, 2020 .
- ↑ Online Annual Report of VR Smart Finanz 2018
- ^ List of members of the Federal Association of German Leasing Companies
Coordinates: 50 ° 8 ′ 49.3 " N , 8 ° 33 ′ 27.1" E
