OREANDA-NEWS. August 20, 2013. In comparison with the same period last year, new sales on the Estonian leasing market fell by 11 per cent to EUR 382 million in the first half of this year; however, car leasing transactions are still actively being concluded, especially on the private cars market, where SEB leasing’s new sales increased by 35 per cent in the space of a year. According to the Bank of Estonia, the whole leasing market portfolio had grown by 6.7 per cent by the end of June, compared to June 2012, and reached EUR 1.6 billion.

“This year, new sales on the leasing market have declined by 11 per cent, but the decline is mainly due to fewer wagon and rolling stock transactions than previously, since the investment need in this field was met on a relatively large scale last year.  In the first six months of 2012 such transactions were made on the market to the extent of EUR 58 million, currently only EUR 13 million.  In the case of similar extensive investments, the volume of new sales could have been approximately on the same level as last year. However, we cannot disregard the fact that the new sales volume of equipment leasing has also declined by about 6 per cent in the last six months; whereas, in important asset groups, manufacturing equipment leasing has declined the most (48 per cent), as shown in the statistics of the Bank of Estonia,” said Ainar Leppanen, Head of SEB Liising.

Leppanen added that, according to key indicators, the leasing market has reached the level of 2004-2005, and the forecasts show that this year new sales on the leasing market shall end with a small decline.

However, the car asset group is active. With the growth in car sales, the percentage of car leasing has also grown, reaching EUR 173.2 million in the first half of this year, 7.6 per cent more than a year ago. New car leasing sales constituted 45 per cent of the new sales of the entire leasing market in the first six months of 2013. It is worth highlighting the increase in private car leasing, which increased by 20 per cent compared to the first half of 2012 (does not include small commercial vehicles). Another important increase on the new sales leasing market concerns agricultural machinery, where leasing transactions valued at EUR 60.6 million were made in the first six months of the year, which is 27 per cent more than in the first six months of 2012.