Immorent Romania, the leasing arm of Austria's Erste Bank, last year released financing worth 28.3 million euros, an increase of 80% from the 15.7 million euros registered in 2005.

"The increase was mainly due to real estate leasing, with the first real estate leasing contracts being signed in 2006," Vasile Cristescu, sales manager with Immorent Romania, told ZF. The company is a provider of commercial real estate leasing and equipment leasing services.

Erste Bank plans to integrate Immorent's offer with BCR's specialised firm, BCR Leasing, as the latter has not developed a solid offer on the segment of real estate financing. Integration can be achieved at least at an operational level, or even through a merger between the two firms.

Immorent sealed 57 contracts last year, 18 more than in 2005, with the increase coming as a result of a higher number of services provided on the domestic market and a greater awareness of the market. At present, the non-banking financial institution has only one office in Romania and 15 employees, with Immorent considering the possibility of opening two more offices in Cluj Napoca and Timisoara.

"At present, we do not consider a large network is needed as we are focusing on large corporate clients and present customers. In the future, we will also look at small and medium-sized enterprises, at which point we will develop our distribution network," stated Cristescu.

This year, the company will focus on real estate leasing, on the development of projects, construction services for its own projects and on the fund management segment through the group's real estate investment fund.

"Our target for 2007 is to generate 55 million euros. Immorent's growth target is based on the huge potential of the Romanian real estate market and on the need for investments enhanced by EU integration," explains the sale