Radius Vehicle Solutions has acquired a majority stake in Belfast-based Traction Finance, expanding its commercial vehicle hire and leasing business into the north and south of Ireland.

More than a third (36%) of Traction Finance’s new sales in 2022 have come from electric vehicles

Traction Finance is a long-established business, offering multiple financing solutions and with a wide portfolio of fleet customers across the UK and Ireland. It works with businesses from single-user customers up to fleets of a hundred or more, providing solutions from contract hire, rental and hire purchase to the sale of new and used vehicles.

Currently, Traction Finance has 2,500 vehicles, with 36% of new sales in 2022 coming from electric vehicles.

The deal with Radius will enable the company to grow its portfolio, as well as gain access to Radius’ wider line-up of solutions, such as telematics, insurance, e-mobility and telecoms, for its customer base.

Paul McGuire, Traction Finance managing director, said: “We are delighted to become a part of Radius Vehicle Solutions. It allows us to expand our unique Island of Ireland offering to a full eMobility solution, offering chargers, charge cards, as well as telematics, dash cameras, insurance and telecoms under one roof for our clients.

“We’ll also be working with some of the best in the industry, and that is a very exciting prospect.”

It’s the latest deal for Radius, which moved into vehicle services last year with the acquisition of Global Go, and will give the company “increased scale and a capability to service customers throughout the UK and Ireland”, according to CEO Bill Holmes.

He added: “We are really looking forward to working with Paul and his team to accelerate the rollout of their solutions, giving us a competitive edge in the Irish market.”

Radius was founded in by Holmes in 1990 as a fuel card company but its growth in recent years has been stratospheric. It also has telematics, telecoms, insurance and electric vehicle solutions divisions, selling to over 300,000 customers, and recent acquisitions have seen it fast expand in these areas too. It now has 51 offices on five continents.