The Romanian Leasing Market as of December 31, 2013

New financed volume in the financial leasing

As of December 31, 2013, the Romanian financial leasing market registered a new financed volume amounting at 1 243 million Euros, i.e. a decrease of 9% compared with the same period of 2012. 

The new financed volumes in 2013 were oriented towards the 3 traditional domains for financial leasing: transportation with a table weight of 71 % (879 million Euros), equipment dedicated to different economic sectors with a 25% weight (315 million Euros) and real estate with 4% weight (49 million Euros). 

The financing of transport field indicates a constant weight related to the tourism vehicles category (55% weight). It's worth mentioning that compared with the same period of the previous year, the financing of heavy commercial vehicles registers an increase of 6% in weight reaching 30%, while the financing of light commercial vehicles shows a decrease with 1% compared to December 2012 ( 13% weight) . A percentage of 2% out of the total vehicles' financing is the weight of other types of registered transportation means. 

Taking into consideration the fact that the auto market in Romania, in 2013, showed an evident decrease, the dependence of the leasing financing on this market could be an objective reason, which negatively and directly affected the total volume of new leasing financings at national level.

In accordance with the national economic growth supported by agricultural production and export growth, financing in financial leasing proved to be a consistent supporter of the financing needs of these sectors. 

Thus, compared to 2012, the year 2013 registered an increase of the agricultural equipment from 14% to 23%, similar to the equipment financing for the wood processing industry (up from 3% to 4%), the financing of food and beverage (up from 2% to 5%), and the car service (up from 1% to 3%). The increase in the share of financing auto services is consistent with the trend of the aging fleet at national level, accelerated by the establishment of the green tax and lower purchases of new vehicles. These reorientations of funding prove the supportive role of the financial leasing in the economic growth, especially in the SMEs sector.

In the same above mentioned context, the quota of other industries is decreasing as follows: the construction field from 22% to 17%, the metal processing segment from 9% to 8% and financing of electric power technologies from 19% to 14%. It is useful to notice that compared with 2012 when the energy sector recorded growth, the year 2013 shows a decrease in this area as a result of legislative changes relating to the energy sector

The financing of the other economic sectors has still a relatively constant weight. The real estate sector in 2012 being maintained historically low, and that, in accordance with the general context of the real estate The legal clients attracted the largest part (97%) of the total financings, up 9% over the same period of 2012, followed by the individuals (3%). We estimate that the implementation of the Regulation 17 of the NBR, starting January, 2013 is a measure which led to the decrease of financed volumes, especially those for individuals. Unfortunately, the public - private partnership registered a share of 0 % indicating the lack of appetite for this model of financing of public investment projects nationwide.

The most frequent period of the leasing contracts is 4-5 years (29%), followed by 3-4 years with (24%), 2-3 years (20%), 5-7 years (10%), 1-2 years (9%), 1 year (4%) and 7-15 years (4%). This last period is characteristic for the financing of the real estate market.

The biggest market quota is registered by the sector of the banks' subsidiaries, with 65% out of the total, followed by the captive companies sector with 20% and by the independent companies sector with 15%. 

Based on the ALB statistics, ALB represents 88% out of the total financial leasing market in Romania. 

ALB is member of the European Federation of the Leasing Associations - Leaseurope and coordinates the CEE Cluster of Leaseurope at the level of the Secretary General.

Leasing Council of ALB Romania

ADRIANA AHCIARLIU - ALB Secretary General