Autonom Services announced acquisition of Tiriac Operating Lease (TOL) will moderately strengthen its Romanian fleet leasing franchise but also delay planned deleveraging, Fitch Ratings says. Autonom’s ratings are unaffected by the planned acquisition.

In late January 2022, Autonom announced that it had signed an agreement with TOL’s shareholders to acquire the company for a total enterprise value of around EUR40 million. The transaction is subject to Romanian competition council approval, and management expects closing by end-1H22. Autonom’s acquisition of TOL will occur in conjunction with the acquisition of its larger sister company, Tiriac Leasing IFN, by Banca Transilvania (BB+/Stable/bb+).

Fitch expects that at closing of the transaction, Autonom’s leverage (defined as gross debt to tangible equity) will increase by about 1x compared with previous projections.

TOL’s acquisition will strengthen Autonom’s franchise within Romania’s small and fragmented but growing fleet leasing market, Fitch says.

TOL is a small Romanian fleet lessor with a fleet of about 2,800 cars of mostly premium brands. TOL’s total assets were equivalent to about a quarter of Autonom’s at end-2021.