UniCredit Leasing won the award for European Lessor of the Year by Leasing Life magazine, which is the leading journal for news and analyses on the leasing market. The UniCredit Group Leasing company received recognition in the “Functional Leader of the Year” category, and is first runner-up in the “SME Champion” category.

The prizes are awarded for the overall business activity of the company and its performance during the last 12 months. The awards of Leasing Life are considered to be the most prestigious ones in the leasing industry in Europe. The international panel of judges, who determine the rankings, includes experts, vendors, lessees, and consultants from both the private and public sectors.

“UniCredit Leasing is not only Europe’s largest lessor by volume of business realized. In fact, in the year of the crisis business volume was not the main characteristic of the best leasing company. The most important thing for the judges was to recognize those companies which coped with the recession in an effective and intelligent way. What has made UniCredit Leasing so successful was its new business strategy, which made a shift from the creation of ‘volume’ to creation of ‘value’, as well as its careful focus on the quality of leasing deals and risk management”, commented Brendan Malkin, editor of Leasing Life magazine.

“The award is an honor for us and clear evidence that our strategy is successful. We won acknowledgment from our direct competitors and from the whole European asset finance market - not only in terms of business volume, but also for being an innovative and effectively managed company”, said Mr. Massimiliano Moi, CEO of UniCredit Leasing.

UniCredit Leasing is part of UniCredit Group. The leasing company has more than 2 900 employees in 17 countries. Locally, the company is represented by UniCredit Leasing Bulgaria. The company holds first place in the country in terms of volume of new business realized and its market share for the first half of 2009, as indicated by data supplied by the Bulgarian Association for Leasing (BAL).

Official information about the awards ceremony of Leasing Life magazine can be found at www.leasinglife.co.uk or directly at http://www.leasinglife.co.uk/articles/article.asp?x=5906&mid=4