Leaseurope, the federation representing the European leasing and automotive rental industry, has released the final results of its Annual Statistical Survey of the European leasing market for 2010. The survey indicates that new leasing business in Europe increased by 4.6% in 2010 to reach €224 billion. These strong results confirm that European lessors have firmly recovered and taken significant momentum into 2011, according to Leaseeurope.

However, the divergences in regional and asset segment performance remain. Vehicle leasing increased by 8.0%, with strong results in the passenger car segment, particularly in the Mediterranean (34.2%) and the Nordic (28.4%) clusters, France (15.7%) and the UK (9.2%). New leasing volumes for commercial vehicles also increased, however at a slower pace compared to passenger cars (+ 2.8%). Some European leasing markets experienced a downturn in the equipment segment (excluding vehicles), which decreased by 4.4% overall. Nevertheless, when big ticket items are excluded, the decrease was only 2.2% overall and Italy, the Mediterranean, Nordic and CEE regions posted increases in volumes. Real estate leasing rebounded strongly with a 15.3% increase compared to 2009. This marked improvement can be attributed to a particularly strong year for the financing of renewable energy infrastructure in Italy.

Leaseurope’s chairman, Jukka Salonen (CEO, Nordea Finance), reflects on the past year, “The European leasing industry has survived the fierce recession and is bouncing back. The tough times we experienced have taught us to focus on providing innovative, value-added solutions to our clients. While large investments are still subdued, recovery has taken firmly hold in the small ticket sectors, where businesses have begun investing again, such as cars and ICT & business equipment. Clearly, our industry is playing an important role in contributing to the ongoing economic recovery across Europe; not least by continuing to support the investment needs of SMEs.”

Piero Biagi (managing director, BCC Lease, Italy), chair of Leaseurope’s statistics & marketing committee, comments that “even though the pace of new leasing volume growth varied across European countries and is still muted in some asset categories, our industry is making noticeable headway. The latest European Commission economic forecast2 indicates that total investment in the EU should rebound in 2011 by 2.5%. This is expected to be driven by strong levels of investment in equipment (+6.7%), thus paving the way for further improvement in the leasing market”.

To consult previews of selected tables available in the 2010 Annual Statistical
Survey click here.