French bank Credit Agricole to buy 50% of GAC’s leasing unit

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Banking

Posted By Uma Rajagopal

Posted on October 16, 2024

French bank Credit Agricole to buy 50% of GAC’s leasing unit

By Mathieu Rosemain and Sudip Kar-Gupta

PARIS (Reuters) -Credit Agricole is planning to buy a 50% stake in the leasing unit of Chinese carmaker Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) as part of a broader deal that makes the French bank a partner of GAC to finance its car sales in Europe.

Credit Agricole’s Personal Finance & Mobility division will end up with the 50% stake via a reserved capital increase, it said in a statement on Tuesday as it aims to tap into the booming Chinese electric car market.

The same division and its subsidiary CA Auto Bank will also become GAC’s financial partner to help with the Chinese automaker’s sales of electric vehicles (EVs) in Europe from January 2025.

State-owned GAC is among China’s largest automakers and is targeting 500,000 overseas sales by 2030.

It does not yet sell EVs in Europe but is planning an electric SUV tailored to the European market.

The group is exploring the manufacture of EVs in Europe to avoid EU tariffs, the general manager of its international business said on Sunday, joining a growing list of Chinese companies planning local production.

This transaction reaffirms the importance of our long-standing partnership with GAC group. It will enable us to support together, and over the long term, the development of the particularly dynamic electric automobile market in China,” said Stephane Priami, who heads up that division of Credit Agricole.

Statistics published on Tuesday by market research firm Rho Motion showed that global sales of fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles rose by an annual 30.5% in September, as China surpassed its record numbers recorded in August.

Present in 18 countries in Europe, CA Auto Bank notably offers traditional credit, leasing and stock financing.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Mathieu Rosemain;Editing by Gareth Jones and Kevin Liffey)

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