BADEN-BADEN (dpa-AFX) - The leasing specialist Grenke has started the year with more new business. At the same time, the company was able to pass on the higher interest rates to its customers, as it announced in Baden-Baden on Thursday. CEO Sebastian Hirsch reported stable demand. In view of the latest figures, he believes Grenke is well on the way to achieving its targets for the current financial year. The news was well received on the stock market.

The Grenke share gained around two and a half percent at times in the morning. In the late morning it was still up one and a half percent at 23.50 euros and was one of the stronger stocks in the small cap index SDax. Compared to the turn of the year, however, the share has still lost around six percent.

For the current year, Grenke CEO Hirsch expects new leasing business of 3 to 3.2 billion euros. Consolidated profit is expected to reach 95 to 115 million euros. Thanks to stable demand and the company's international positioning, he sees his targets confirmed.

In the first quarter, Grenke increased its new leasing business by 9.8 percent to 669.8 million euros compared to the same period last year. The contribution margin (DB2 margin) of new business increased from 16.7 to 16.8 percent. The company thus roughly achieved its medium-term target of around 17%.

The increase in demand came primarily from Western Europe - with growth of almost 16%. Grenke also increased its new business in Southern, Northern and Eastern Europe. In the Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH) region, however, the volume fell by a good three percent.

The rise in interest rates was clearly noticeable in the lending and customer deposit business. At 8.7 million euros, new lending business in the first quarter was around a third lower than in the previous year. By contrast, customer balances in Grenke accounts grew by 4.5 percent to almost 1.7 billion euros between the end of December and the end of March.

There was also growth in the factoring business, which the Group intends to divest. Here, new business increased by 10.9 percent to 212.9 million euros. In factoring, a company sells its receivables from its customers to a factoring provider - in this case Grenke. In return, the company receives its money immediately.

Grenke announced the sale of its factoring companies at the end of January. The hoped-for synergies with the core business had not materialized, it was said at the time. In addition, the existing factoring business could only be made profitable in the long term with additional investments and a multiplication of the business volume./stw/nas/jha/