CHG-MERIDIAN generates record level of lease origination

IT financial services provider CHG-MERIDIAN achieved the highest level of lease origination in its history in 2006. The Group, which operates across Europe, expanded its volume of lease origination to approximately €617 million last year, a year-on-year increase of 9.8 per cent. This strong growth was largely attributable to its non-German subsidiaries, whose share of total lease origination rose from 26.8 per cent to 34.2 per cent in 2006.

Jürgen Mossakowski, the company's chief executive officer, was visibly pleased with last year's performance when he announced the results last Tuesday: "10 of our 14 foreign subsidiaries generated record levels of lease origination." CHG-MERIDIAN doubled its volume of lease originations in Belgium and Switzerland and quadrupled it in Spain.

The Group employed a total of 407 people at the end of 2006. Mossakowski stressed that roughly ten per cent of these jobs had been created in the past 12 months alone.

He added that the company had "shifted up a gear" in its ongoing efforts to transform itself into an IT full-service provider. For several years now the Group has offered an extensive portfolio of diverse IT services in addition to its financing solutions. One of last year's projects that Mossakowski is particularly proud of was when a project team led by CHG-MERIDIAN completed an inventory of the MAN Group's entire German IT infrastructure in just ten weeks; this comprised roughly 80,000 items of equipment at some 220 sites across Germany.

The CHG-MERIDIAN Group plans to maintain this momentum in 2007, and Mossakowski sees further potential for growth in areas such as IT services and support for multinational companies. "Growing numbers of clients want to be able to avail themselves of the usual services at their sites outside Germany as well. As an IT financial services provider that operates throughout Europe, we have a clear advantage here", was Mossakowski's confident assessment.

About the CHG-MERIDIAN Group
The CHG-MERIDIAN Group is one of Europe's leading non-captive providers of financial solutions and services in the field of information and communications technologies. Established in 1979, it offers its clients a fully comprehensive IT infrastructure service – from the planning and finance stages via the procurement process and installation to the collection and remarketing of equipment at the company's dedicated logistics and brokerage centre. The independence and in-depth expertise of CHG-MERIDIAN's staff ensure that each client receives the best-possible customised service.

In 2006 the company's 407 employees generated lease originations totalling € 617 million.

The CHG-MERIDIAN Group operates in 14 European countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Russia. In Germany, in addition to its head office in Weingarten, it has branches in Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Sulzbach, Stuttgart and Munich as well as a brokerage and logistics centre in Mörfelden near Frankfurt am Main.