De Lage Landen, the leasing arm of the Rabobank Dutch financial group, believes that investing on the Romanian market is vital to the company's long-term development.

"Today's emerging markets are tomorrow's main markets. We must invest in the future, and Romania is one of our priorities in the Central and Eastern European region," Anthony de Monchy, corporate director of general affairs with De Lage Landen, told ZF.

Specialising in equipment financing and seller financing programmes, De Lage Landen is one of the biggest international leasing companies. The company financed contracts worth around 18.9bn euros in 2006.

"For us, Romania ranks first in terms of the size and the level of foreign direct investments, compared with other countries in the region. The disadvantage is the political instability, although indications are that the economy is hardly affected by political turmoil," added De Monchy.

Despite considering investing in Romania for sometime, De Lage Laden has still not opened any domestic offices yet.

"We are not ruling out any options at the moment. We've recently concluded a partnership with a major player on the Romanian leasing market, but we are not ruling out a possible acquisition or the setting up of our own representative office," said de Monchy.

Over the last three years, the Romanian leasing market has witnessed a rapid growth rate of around 40%, with 2006 being one of the most dynamic years in terms of acquisitions.

Once entering the market, De Lage Landen could join a number of leasing firms owned by banks, which accounted for 75% of the overall assets financed in 2006.

With operations in 25 countries, the De Lage Landen is headquartered in Eindhoven (the Netherlands) and is held by the Rabobank Dutch financial group.

Last year the company generated a net income worth 206m euros, whilst s