Toughest year for leasing industry: market leaders decline by as much as 70%

Leasing firms faced major challenges in 2009, the most difficult year in their history, with market leaders' turnovers shrinking by as much as 70%. The plummeting car sales meant a heavy blow for the leasing industry, and firms that had enjoyed two-digit growth in the past saw their turnovers plummeting to just one quarter or one third of 2008 levels. The entire leasing industry declined by 72%, with the total value of financed goods reaching 1.33bn euros. The biggest company on the market, UniCredit Leasing Corporation, ended 2009 with a 300m-euro value of financed goods, from 555m euros in 2008, with the decrease hitting 46%, much lower than the market contraction. UniCredit Leasing leads by a far distance from its main competitor, BCR Leasing, which last year saw the value of financed goods slide by 70%, to 138m euros. At the same time, Porsche Leasing, one of the biggest funders on the car market, financed goods worth 121m euros, down 59% from a year ago. "The economic downturn seriously hurt the car market and its decline implicitly made an impact on the leasing market (...)," Kurt Leitner, CEO of Porsche Finance Group, told ZF.