WCG-Global-Leasing-Report-2017

2017
Global
Leasing
Report
BY BRENDAN GLEESON
GROUP CEO
WHITE CLARKE GROUP
CONTINUOUS GROWTH AND
BRIGHT PROSPECTS FOR THE
GLOBAL LEASING INDUSTRY

WHITE CLARKE GROUP GLOBAL LEASING REPORT
Your complimentary copy of
the Global Leasing Report 2017
I am delighted to present you with this latest edition of the White
Clarke Group Global Leasing Report 2017. The GLR has become
the definitive analysis of country trading environments and world
trends in auto and asset leasing and I am proud that this is the
11th year that our report has featured as the keynote commentary
of the World Leasing Yearbook.
You will find the latest auditable data on volume and growth by
region, market penetration, GDP ratios and market shares, complete
with a ranking of the top 50 leasing markets by size worldwide.
For the fifth consecutive year since the global economic
crisis, the leasing industry has expanded, with the top 50
leasing markets growing new business volume by 6.5%, from
US$994.31bn in 2014 to more than US$1trillion in 2015. Three
regions, North America, Europe and Asia, account for more
than 90% of total world volume.
Brendan Gleeson, Group CEO,
White Clarke Group
Latin America recorded growth of 28.9%, showing the largest
percentage rise among all global regions. This is followed by
Asia, which has shown continuous growth over the last few years
and is up by 14.4%. North America has also seen an impressive
growth of 10.7%.
The outlook for all six regions looks cautiously optimistic given
the reported growth in most regions. However, the year 2016 has
brought some significant economic and political events, namely
Brexit and the election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency.
Both events have short term turbulence upon the global FX and
stock markets. It is too early to assess how these events may
impact upon the economies of the world and the global leasing
industry in the medium term, but there may be some resulting
economic instability in 2017.
I hope you will enjoy this report and feel free to comment or ask
questions info@whiteclarkegroup.com
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WHITE CLARKE GROUP GLOBAL LEASING REPORT
About White Clarke Group
World Leasing Yearbook
White Clarke Group is the global first-class provider
in end-to-end automotive and asset finance software
solutions and consulting services. It is a global organization
employing around 500 professionals, with offices in the UK,
US, Canada, Australia, Austria, Germany, India and China.
The company’s award-winning CALMS end-to-end platform
provides a flexible workflow approach that automates the
entire business process from origination through contract
to portfolio management—trusted by more than 100
customers in 30 countries around the globe.
The White Clarke Group Global Leasing Report is prepared
by White Clarke Group in association with the World
Leasing Yearbook. This report is an extract from the
complete Global Leasing Report which is part of the 352
page World Leasing Yearbook. To obtain the full report,
which contains 7 additional tables and figures, you can
purchase the book at www.world-leasing-yearbook.com
or call +44 (0)1206 579591
For more information, please visit
www.whiteclarkegroup.com
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WHITE CLARKE GROUP GLOBAL LEASING REPORT
Continuous growth and bright
prospects for the global
leasing industry
By Brendan Gleeson, Group CEO, White Clarke Group
The White Clarke Group Global Leasing Report
continues a history of tracking the worldwide
market for leasing products for more than 30
years. Following the continuing recovery from
the global economic crisis, the leasing industry
experienced significant growth in 2015 and
has introduced new innovative ways to finance
equipment for companies worldwide.
All values are quoted in US dollars.
Overview
For the fifth consecutive year since the global
economic crisis, the global leasing industry maintained
an optimistic outlook and has experienced growth in
new business volumes.
The top 50 countries reported growth in new business
volume of 6.5%, from US$994.31bn in 2014 to more
than US$1 trillion in 2015. Three regions, North America,
Europe and Asia, account for more than 90% of total
world volume.
The North American region posted impressive growth
of 10.7%. Latin America recorded growth of 28.9%
in 2015, and showed the largest percentage rise
among all the global regions. Another region that
is experiencing continuous growth is Asia where
business was up 14.4%.
Contrastingly, Europe reported a small decline in total
leasing volume when expressed in US dollars, which
was not due to the recession in parts of the Eurozone
but rather reflects the impact of the dollar to euro
exchange rates (see below for further explanation).
The Australia/New Zealand region experienced the
same volume of business in local currency, but again
fell 12.4% when expressed in US dollars.
North America
The North American region comprises the US, Canada
and Mexico. The region has maintained its position as
the world’s largest market, with new business volume
of US$407.8bn in 2015. It has now increased its share
of the total global market in equipment leasing to 42.1%.
The US is the main dominant player of the region, and
is the largest single market in the world. In 2015 new
business volume was US$374bn, 15% greater than the
subsequent largest region (Europe with US$322.8bn).
The changing landscape of asset-based finance
business in the US has prompted the Equipment
Leasing & Finance Foundation (ELFF) to shift its focus
from pure leasing and hire purchase to encompass a
broader set of financial instruments. In 2015 the total
US equipment finance industry (leasing plus secured
loans and lines of credit) exceeded US$1 trillion and is
expected to grow further in 2016.
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WHITE CLARKE GROUP GLOBAL LEASING REPORT
Table 1: Volume and growth by region (2014–2015)
Rank by
volume
Region
Annual volume
(US$bn)
Growth 2014–2015
(%)
Percentage of world
market volume 2014
Percentage of world
market volume 2015
Change in market
share 2014–2015
1 N America 407.8 10.7 39.0 40.6 1.52
2 Europe 322.8 –1.5 34.7 32.1 –2.6
3 Asia 223.0 14.4 20.6 22.2 1.5
4 Aus/NZ 31.2 –12.4 3.8 3.1 –0.7
5 S America 13.8 28.9 1.1 1.4 0.2
6 Africa 6.7 –0.7 0.7 0.7 0.0
Total 1,005.30
Source: White Clarke Group Global Leasing Report.
The Canadian Finance & Leasing Association (CFLA) has
reassessed the way it compiles sales volume since 2013.
This has improved the reliability of the data; however, the
whole region lacks the granularity of data available from
other regions. Overall Canada reported sales volume
of US$26.21bn and modest growth of 3.4%, which was
impacted upon by the collapse of oil prices in 2014.
There was poor performance in some European
countries reflecting the weak state of the domestic
economies, notably: Russia (20% decline), Ukraine (70%
decline) and Greece (3% decline). Ukraine has now
exited the table of top 50 countries. No surprise given
the annexation of the Crimea by Russia and the war in
eastern Ukraine and the resulting economic fallout.
Mexico experienced growth of 32% and new business
volume of US$7.19bn showing the solid development of
the leasing industry in that region.
Europe
Each year Europe competes with the US for the top
position in the world’s leasing market share, and
each have new business volume of US$322.8bn
and US$374.35bn respectively.
Europe accounts for 33.2% of world volume and
five European countries feature in the world’s top
10 countries for new business, contributing 68%
of the total volume.
In local currency, the European region grew by 10.3%.
However, when expressed in US dollars, Europe
experienced negative growth of –1.5%. (Note: The
European growth figures reported in Table 2 refer
to the growth figures in local currency). See the full
Leaseurope report in the World Leasing Yearbook.
The United Kingdom and Germany are positioned as
the third and fourth largest leasing markets in the world
and remain the dominant players in Europe. Jointly they
accounted for 46.9% of the European market and 15.6%
of the world market. This performance was aided by
the healthy performance of the UK economy with GDP
growth of 3.02% and Germany at 1.71%.
In 2015, the UK leasing industry captured US$87.13bn
in new business volume, leading to another significant
rate of growth of 14% (in local currency) compared with
the previous year and positioning it in a strong third
position after the US and China. The IT equipment
market reported the largest rate of growth in the UK,
around 38%, followed by commercial vehicle and
car finance segments which also experienced
double-digit growth. Overall, the UK market has
demonstrated stability and efficiency when it comes
to asset financing and leasing.
The second largest European market is Germany with
a growth of 8.42% (in local currency) in comparison to
2014 and with new business volume of US$63.84bn.
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The German leasing sector is one of the most mature in
the world, and hire purchase stills plays a secondary role
accounting for only 13% of equipment finance compared
to finance leasing of 48% and operating leasing of 39%. In
2015 the share of leasing as a financing tool for investment
became larger and the equipment and construction
industries adopted leasing more frequently.
Road vehicles remain the dominant asset class in the
German economy (71%), followed by machinery (13%)
and office equipment and IT systems (6%). Looking at
the equipment leased by type of customer, services,
manufacturing and transport segments accounted for
more than the 65% of the total volume.
France secured the sixth place in the Global Leasing
Report rankings, with new business volume of US$30.92bn
and growth of 10%. This growth was mainly facilitated by
low inflation and high household consumption, which led
to a greater investment in leasing assets.
Most of the central and eastern European countries,
as mentioned above, have reported low or negative
growth (i.e. Ukraine, Russia, Serbia and Estonia). The
Russian leasing market was affected by the bank
lending rates, and experienced a decline in growth of
–20%. Nonetheless, during the second quarter of 2016
new leasing reforms were discussed at the meeting of
the RF Ministry of Finance Interdepartmental Working
Group, and these are expected to bring future brighter
prospects for the Russian leasing sector.
* NB Our European figures will exhibit slight differences
from those quoted by Leaseurope because The White
Clarke Group Global Leasing Report adopts the US
dollar as its base rate, as published at the last day of
the year. Leaseurope employs the euro as its base
currency, adjusted for exchange rate fluctuations.
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Asia
New business volume in Asia increased by 14.4% in 2015
and takes a 22.2% share of the world market (around
US$223bn), up from last year when the market volume for
Asia was 20.6%.
Small and medium-sized enterprises showed a rise
for the first time in two years and large companies
declined for the third year in a row. An increase in
consumer tax may have been a contributor factor.
The Chinese central bank cut interest rates five times
during the year, making bank loans cheaper and leasing
less attractive. Nonetheless, China remains the biggest
player in the Asia market and increased its volume by 26%,
reporting US$136.45bn new business volume in 2015.
The Chinese leasing industry has positioned itself as
the second largest market in the world for asset finance
through leasing and hire purchase, despite experiencing
the lowest growth in GDP for the past 25 years. The
infrastructure and the manufacturing sectors have
traditionally dominated the leasing market, but in recent
years the car industry has gained market share.
The Japanese leasing market recovered from last year’s
decline in growth (--17% in 2014) and experienced an
increase of 9% in 2015. New business volume increased
from US$55bn to US$60.84bn, a growth favoured by
the Abe administration’s ‘Japan Revitalization Strategy’
introduced in 2013 where leasing became an instrument
to promote technology.
The third biggest leasing market in Asia is Korea and
it is ranked 13th in the world achieving an increase in
new business volume of 8% in 2015 to US$11.39bn.
Transportation equipment and industrial machinery
continue to be the main assets leased representing
more than 80% of new business.
Taiwan is the fourth largest Asian leasing market. Since
2010 Taiwan has been experiencing an economic
expansion and has left behind the global economic
crisis’ effects which caused declines in leasing
volumes in previous years. The Taiwanese leasing
market is growing and in 2015 new business volume
reached US$10.62bn (10% higher than 2014).
Recent changes in Taiwanese regulations introduced
flexible financing not otherwise available to small
enterprises, with the aim of easing capital shortages
for SMEs. Also in 2015, the leasing market expanded
into high-tech leasing business creating optimism in
the leasing industry for the future.
Industrial equipment (12%), factory equipment (29%),
information and communication equipment (3%) and
medical equipment (9%) exhibited growth in comparison
with last year, whereas construction equipment (-8.8%)
and transport equipment (-3.4%) suffered negative growth.
The last Asian country to make it to the Global
Leasing Report top 50 is India. It experienced growth
of only 2.65%, just enough to be included in this
year’s Report, thus eliminating a European country
from the top 50 list.
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Rest of the world
Four countries in Africa (Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and South
Africa), five countries in Latin America (Argentina, Brazil,
Chile, Colombia and Peru) plus Australia and New Zealand
make up the remainder of the top 50 for 2015.
In previous reports, we have isolated Australia’s volume
of chattel mortgage from their rankings. Chattel mortgage
plays an increasingly important role in equipment finance
in Australia. Following representations from the AELA we
have now accepted chattel mortgage as a form of hire
purchase, with which there are important similarities.
Australia moves from sixth to seventh place in world
ranking, mainly due to the difference in exchange rates
with the dollar. However, sales remain the same when
expressed in Australian dollars (A$42.3bn).
Latin American new business volume figures are not
recorded by the national leasing associations, with the
exception of Brazil and Chile, where the emphasis is
on portfolio value. This makes it notoriously difficult to
ascertain sales volume for the region, but we are most
grateful, once again, to the CEO of the Alta Group—Latin
American Region, Mr Rafael Castillo Triana, for giving us
access to his research and facilitate us with data.
Where national association figures are not available,
there has been a significant downward reassessment.
In the absence of growth figures, we have adopted the
growth in portfolio value, giving at least some indication
of the health of the industry.
Adopting portfolio value as the benchmark, one of the
South American countries managed to get into the top
20 countries for leasing. Overall new business volume
for the Latin American region grew by 28.9% in US
dollars. Significant growth was seen in the Colombian
leasing market which increased volume by more
than 21% in 2015.
Africa accounts for 0.7% of the world market in leasing
and four African countries achieved a placing within the
top 50 leasing threshold: Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and
South Africa. The region declined in volume (-0.7%) to
US$6.7bn in 2015. The African leasing industry is still in
its infancy and, apart from South Africa, there is a paucity
of quantitative information available. South Africa ranked
27th in the top 50 countries, with a small decline in
volume of 1.16%.
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Table 2: White Clarke Group Global Leasing Report
Ranking
Continental
Code
Country
Annual Volume
(US$bn)
% Growth
2014–2015
% Market
Penetration
Source
1 NA US 374.35 11.10 22.0 (8)
2 A China (People's Republic) 136.45 25.55 4.0 (9)
3 E UK 87.13 14.01 31.1 (2)
4 E Germany 63.82 8.42 16.7 (2)
5 A Japan 60.84 8.94 9.6 (1)
6 E France 30.92 9.93 14.2 (2)
7 ANT Australia 30.85 0.01 40.0 (1)
8 NA Canada 26.21 3.40 32.0 (1)
9 E Sweden 18.22 12.05 22.9 (2)
10 E Italy 17.67 12.52 13.0 (2)
11 E Switzerland 13.79 5.25 11.5 (2)
12 E Poland 12.56 16.37 17.1 (2)
13 A Korea 11.39 8.10 9.4 (1)
14 A Taiwan 10.62 9.80 9.3 (1)
15 E Denmark 9.04 24.06 28.5 (2)
16 E Russia 8.69 –19.85 n/a (2)
17 E Turkey 7.69 –9.85 10.0 (1)
18 E Spain 7.64 19.93 5.6 (2)
19 NA Mexico 7.19 32.00 n/a (4)
20 SA Colombia 6.14 21.00 n/a (4)
21 E Norway 6.12 –2.39 9.8 (2)
22 E Austria 6.09 5.90 13.3 (2)
23 E Netherlands 5.95 21.27 6.8 (2)
24 E Finland 5.06 3.74 17.2 (2)
25 E Belgium 5.05 11.14 8.9 (2)
26 E Czech Republic 4.11 20.34 12.0 (2)
27 AF South Africa 3.10 –1.16 n/a (7)
28 SA Peru 2.70 4.00 n/a (4)
29 E Slovakia 2.46 17.60 15.6 (2)
30 SA Brazil 2.43 –38.57 n/a (1)
31 E Portugal 2.36 20.85 15.7 (2)
32 A Iran 2.14 17.00 7.3 (9)
33 SA Chile 1.81 –20.95 n/a (1)
34 E Romania 1.68 18.47 4.5 (2)
35 AF Egypt 1.37 159.00 n/a (1)
36 E Hungary 1.30 13.50 n/a (1)
37 AF Nigeria 1.20 27.39 n/a (1)
38 E Lithuania 1.17 51.42 18.2 (2)
39 A Malaysia 1.15 –15.61 n/a (1)
40 E Slovenia 1.12 44.61 19.6 (2)
41 AF Morocco 1.04 5.80 n/a (2)
42 E Estonia 1.02 7.61 24.7 (2)
43 E Bulgaria 0.87 20.41 9.3 (2)
44 E Latvia 0.76 28.78 14.8 (2)
45 SA Argentina 0.73 27.00 n/a (4)
46 ANT New Zealand 0.37 0.01 n/a (8)
47 E Serbia-Montenegro 0.34 7.86 n/a (2)
48 A Uzbekistan 0.23 3.00 2.3 (1)
49 A India 0.19 2.65 n/a (9)
50 E Greece 0.17 –2.80 1.1 (2)
TOTAL 1,005.30
Market penetration rates quoted by Leaseurope appear as those reported and defined in the Leaseurope’s 2015 Annual Survey.
Key to Sources: (1) National Leasing Association (4) Alta Group (7) Central bank data
(2) Leaseurope (5) Other trade associations (8) Author’s estimate
(3) Asian Leasing Association (6) Government statistics (9) Others’ data
White Clarke Group Global Leasing Report is prepared by White Clarke Group, Milton Keynes, UK, in association with the World Leasing Yearbook.
No information may be reproduced without the prior permission of White Clarke Group and the publishers of the World Leasing Yearbook.

WHITE CLARKE GROUP GLOBAL LEASING REPORT
Leasing penetration
The sources
For countries where reliable data has been made available,
Table 2 includes a measure of leasing penetration for
the year 2015. We provide two measurements for leasing
penetration. One shows the percentage of investment in
a given country financed by leasing and hire purchase.
It is calculated as total new business volume divided by
total investment, excluding real estate. For 11 of the largest
countries, a back run of these figures for 20 years is given
in Table 4.
The second method of expressing penetration, introduced
into the Global Leasing Report in 1999, is in relation to gross
domestic product (GDP), i.e. national output as a whole.
Table 5 gives figures and rankings for each country in the
White Clarke Group/GDP ratio for 2015.
Of the two measures, the first (investment penetration) is a
better indication of how leasing compares in competition
with alternative forms of financing. However, calculation of
the investment penetration ratio depends on identifying the
correct statistic for plant investment, against which leasing
should be compared.
The White Clarke Group/GDP ratio is a more reliable indicator
in that it is based on a broader denominator. Furthermore,
information for all countries is more readily available.
In measuring leasing by reference to economic activity
as a whole, this ratio highlights which countries have
relatively mature leasing industries, or, in some cases,
where leasing is being promoted strategically as a source
of investment funding.
The White Clarke Group Global Leasing Report is
assembled from a number of disparate sources, the
most important primary sources being the national
associations that represent leasing companies in
most individual countries.
The chief role of the national associations is to act as
lobbying groups, with the aim of influencing the regulatory
environment. These bodies almost all make efforts to extend
their membership bases as widely as possible within the
local leasing industry, and to measure and publicise local
leasing business activity.
In several regions, including Europe, Asia and Latin America,
continental leasing federations add substantial value to
the process of recording activity at national as well as
continental levels.
In Europe, the Leaseurope federation endeavours to
standardise the measurement of equipment leasing business
for each European country, on a basis that broadly matches
the Global Leasing Report’s concept of the scope of leasing.
We are particularly grateful to Leaseurope for the quality and
depth of their data.
Readers will note some differences between figures
quoted for European countries by the two organisations.
This is because Leaseurope publishes its data in euros,
using average exchange rates over the year for non-Euro
countries, while the Global Leasing Report is published
in US dollars, employing the last published exchange
rates for the year.
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Identifying the top 50
National associations also remain important sources
of information in Europe, with many of them providing
significant information and narrative beyond that
required by Leaseurope.
We are grateful to the Alta Group for their assistance
in preparing much of the Latin American data.
Other important sources of information for some
countries include official statistics from central banks
or finance ministries; and in some cases trade bodies,
which have a wider remit than the leasing industry but
who can make a clear differentiation between leasing
and other financial products.
In some of the less developed countries, International
Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the
World Bank, has been active in promoting leasing activity.
IFC is in a position to provide market volume estimates for
several developing countries, and has been a very helpful
source of information for the Global Leasing Report for
many years.
The global and continental aggregates are compiled
from the top 50 countries only, and estimates are not
made for countries outside that group. It is estimated
that all the excluded countries together would have
accounted for less than US$10bn of measurable
leasing business in 2015.
For the purposes of identifying regional or continental
groups, Turkey is taken as the eastern extremity of
Europe. Africa is divided from Asia at the Suez Canal,
with Egypt in Africa. The Americas are divided at the
Panama Canal, with Panama itself in North America.
Australia and New Zealand together are treated as
a separate region.
Cross-border leasing is included within the national total
for the home state of the lessor, rather than that of the
lessee. Strictly speaking, the national totals represent
leasing industries rather than leasing markets.
For a few countries, where it is clear that locally-based
sources have provided data representing only part of
total leasing activity, or where reasonably comprehensive
information for earlier years had not been available, White
Clarke Group has had to make an author’s estimate of the
national leasing total.
The various sources of information for each country are
identified in the footnotes to Table 2.
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Table 3: Leasing volume by region 1999–2015 (US$bn)
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Europe 133.6 131.0 140.0 164.1 196.1 236.5 239.6 272.0 401.2 336.7 220.4 233.0 302.7 314.0 333.6 327.8 322.8
N America 239.1 272.4 254.1 216.0 223.9 240.7 236.7 241.1 237.9 226.1 190.8 213.3 292.5 336.4 335.1 368.4 407.8
Asia 80.4 78.3 67.7 68.7 74.1 78.2 74.0 81.7 84.6 99.2 103.8 105.6 153.4 180.2 177.3 195.0 223.0
S America 8.3 8.1 5.6 3.3 4.0 7.5 13.9 19.2 41.4 54.2 30.2 25.4 27.5 13.2 18.0 10.7 13.8
Australia/NZ 7.9 5.3 5.5 5.8 7.6 8.1 8.2 8.6 4.1 6.9 5.7 10.8 12.0 16.1 12.5 35.6 31.2
Africa 4.3 3.9 3.8 3.7 5.6 8.1 9.6 11.1 11.2 9.6 6.5 6.4 8.6 8.2 7.5 6.8 6.7
Annual totals 473.5 499.0 476.7 461.6 511.3 579.1 582.0 633.7 780.4 732.8 557.3 594.5 796.7 868.0 884.0 944.3 1,005.3
Sources: London Financial Group, White Clarke Group Global Leasing Report.
Table 4: A comparison of the rate of equipment leasing
market penetration (%)
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
US 30.9 30.9 30.0 31.7 31.0 31.1 31.1 29.9 26.9 27.7 26.0 16.4 17.1 17.1 21.0 22.0 22.0 22.0 22.0
Japan 8.9 9.2 9.5 9.1 9.2 9.3 8.7 8.7 9.3 9.3 7.8 7.2 7.0 6.3 6.8 7.2 9.8 8.9 9.6
Germany 13.6 14.7 15.1 14.8 13.5 9.8 21.7 15.7 18.6 23.6 15.5 16.2 13.9 14.3 14.7 5.8 16.6 16.4 16.7
Korea 28.3 13.1 2.8 2.4 1.6 3.9 4.4 5.6 7.7 9.4 n/a 10.5 4.4 4.8 8.7 8.5 8.1 9.8 9.4
UK 19.2 15.0 15.9 13.8 14.4 15.3 14.2 9.4 14.5 12.7 11.6 20.6 17.6 18.5 19.8 23.8 31.0 28.6 31.1
France 12.4 17.0 15.7 9.2 13.7 12.9 15.4 9.0 11.7 11.0 12.0 12.2 3.1 10.5 11.1 12.8 12.5 13.1 14.2
Italy 10.9 12.3 12.4 12.3 10.4 8.6 7.6 11.4 15.1 15.2 11.4 16.9 10.0 13.1 12.3 10.0 9.4 11.7 13.0
Brazil 20.7 20.7 12.5 11.4 7.6 3.6 3.8 7.7 13.5 16.9 19.0 23.8 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a
Canada 15.7 22.0 22.0 22.5 22.0 20.2 22.0 23.3 23.9 22.0 22.0 19.6 14.0 15.1 20.8 20.8 32.0 31.0 32.0
Australia 25.0 25.0 25.4 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 20.0 18.0 14.2 10.0 10.0 12.0 27.5 27.5 40.0 40.0 40.0
Sweden 28.0 20.0 17.5 12.9 9.2 13.0 11.6 12.7 11.8 11.8 14.3 19.4 17.5 19.2 18.2 24.6 24.4 22.7 22.9
Sources:
(1) Australian Equipment Lessors Association (total leasing as a percentage
of private capital investment).
(2) US Dept. of Commerce, Economics & Statistics Administration, Bureau
of Economic Analysis and Equipment Leasing Association of America
(equipment leasing as a percentage of business investment in equipment).
(3) Japan Economic Planning Agency and Japan Leasing Association
(equipment leasing as a percentage of private capital investment).
(4) Leaseurope Annual Reports.
(5) Statistics Canada and Equipment Lessors Association of Canada
(lessor purchases as a percentage of total equipment acquisitions in Canada).
(6) Korea Leasing Association.
(7) Brazilian Association of Leasing Companies.
(8) London Financial Group.
(9) White Clarke Group Global Leasing Report.
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WHITE CLARKE GROUP GLOBAL LEASING REPORT
Deriving the figures
The statistics measure new business value for each
year, i.e. the value of equipment newly assigned on
lease to customers during the year. Strictly speaking,
that does not necessarily denote new equipment: it
could include second-hand equipment, and sale-andleaseback
transactions for equipment already in use
by the seller/lessee.
The widespread adoption of hire purchase as a
financial instrument for equipment finance (in some
countries, hire purchase has become the major source
of revenue for leasing companies) prompted a change
in our industry reporting since 2011. Since then, all
reference to leasing and the leasing sector includes
equipment hire purchase.
Real estate leasing is consistently excluded from
the Report. In some countries the national leasing
associations (or other information sources) are
concerned with the leasing of land and buildings as well
as that of equipment. Nevertheless, in most of those
cases the primary data sources make a sufficiently clear
distinction between the two in their own statistics.
Likewise, consumer credit financing is excluded.
In principle, the dividing line between leasing and
consumer finance is a simple functional one, i.e. whether
the equipment is largely for business use, or primarily
for the customer’s private non-professional use as an
individual or householder.
This still leaves some problem areas as to what types of
commercial equipment financing transaction should be
counted as leasing. In many countries the line between
leases and other forms of finance is reasonably clear.
There is no obvious solution as to where to draw the line
on a consistent basis for all countries. In such problem
areas the approach adopted by the White Clarke Group
Global Leasing Report (within the overriding parameters,
such as excluding both real estate and consumer
transactions) is to follow the local definition of leasing.
The Global Leasing Report employs US dollar as the
common currency baseline for country comparisons,
using exchange rates prevailing at the end of the year.
In other cases, some estimating is necessary within the
Global Leasing Report in order to strip out a portion of
the reported total leasing activity believed to represent
real estate leasing.
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WHITE CLARKE GROUP GLOBAL LEASING REPORT
Table 5: White Clarke Group/GDP penetration ratio
Annual leasing volume as a percentage of gross domestic product
Ranking Country 2015 Ratio
1 Estonia 4.31
2 Sweden 3.03
3 UK 3.02
4 Latvia 2.68
5 Lithuania 2.64
6 Denmark 2.50
7 Switzerland 2.40
8 Slovak Republic 2.19
9 Australia 2.08
10 US 2.08
11 Poland 2.08
12 Slovenia 1.90
13 Finland 1.90
14 Germany 1.71
15 Taiwan 1.67
16 Colombia 1.57
17 Austria 1.47
18 Bulgaria 1.44
19 Canada 1.39
20 China 1.37
21 Czech Republic 1.33
22 Norway 1.28
23 Peru 1.26
24 France 1.05
25 Portugal 0.98
26 Belgium 0.94
27 Japan 0.93
28 Korea 0.83
29 Morocco 0.83
30 Hungary 0.80
31 Italy 0.77
32 Turkey 0.74
33 Netherlands 0.70
34 South Africa 0.68
35 Romania 0.63
36 Chile 0.62
37 Serbia 0.55
38 Mexico 0.53
39 Spain 0.50
40 Iran 0.49
41 Uzbekistan 0.41
42 Egypt 0.40
43 Nigeria 0.37
44 Malaysia 0.36
45 Russia 0.35
46 New Zealand 0.22
47 Argentina 0.18
48 Brazil 0.09
49 Greece 0.05
50 India 0.01
Ranking Country 2014 Ratio
1 Estonia 4.81
2 Sweden 3.30
3 UK 2.84
4 Latvia 2.47
5 Australia 2.47
6 Denmark 2.36
7 Switzerland 2.30
8 Slovakia 2.24
9 Finland 2.14
10 Poland 2.11
11 Lithuania 2.07
12 US 1.95
13 Germany 1.87
14 Slovenia 1.73
15 Canada 1.69
16 Austria 1.63
17 Norway 1.63
18 Taiwan 1.63
19 Czech Republic 1.36
20 Bulgaria 1.31
21 China (People’s Republic) 1.29
22 France 1.12
23 Colombia 1.09
24 South Africa 1.07
25 Belgium 0.99
26 Portugal 0.95
27 Hungary 0.93
28 Morocco 0.91
29 Japan 0.89
30 Turkey 0.88
31 Korea 0.87
32 Chile 0.83
33 Italy 0.80
34 Russia 0.72
35 Netherlands 0.67
36 Romania 0.67
37 Serbia-Montenegro 0.60
38 Malaysia 0.57
39 Uzbekistan 0.55
40 Spain 0.49
41 Iran 0.42
42 Ukraine 0.25
43 New Zealand 0.23
44 Egypt 0.19
45 Nigeria 0.17
46 Brazil 0.15
47 Peru 0.11
48 Greece 0.06
49 Argentina 0.06
50 Mexico 0.04
Ranking Country 2013 Ratio
1 Estonia 5.91
2 Sweden 3.82
3 Latvia 3.36
4 UK 2.67
5 Lithuania 2.65
6 Denmark 2.50
7 Slovakia 2.48
8 Finland 2.31
9 Switzerland 2.19
10 Slovenia 2.09
11 Poland 2.03
12 Germany 2.01
13 US 1.92
14 Austria 1.74
15 Norway 1.73
16 Colombia 1.62
17 Taiwan 1.60
18 Czech Republic 1.55
19 Bulgaria 1.51
20 Morocco 1.29
21 France 1.25
22 South Africa 1.23
23 Russia 1.22
24 Peru 1.21
25 Belgium 1.13
26 China (People’s Republic) 1.11
27 Japan 1.11
28 Hungary 1.09
29 Chile 0.96
30 Australia 0.88
31 Italy 0.87
32 Portugal 0.83
33 Argentina 0.80
34 Korea 0.79
35 Romania 0.78
36 Netherlands 0.75
37 Serbia-Montenegro 0.72
38 Canada 0.71
39 Malaysia 0.69
40 Uzbekistan 0.63
41 Turkey 0.63
42 Puerto Rico 0.58
43 Ukraine 0.50
44 Mexico 0.40
45 Spain 0.39
46 Nigeria 0.24
47 Iran 0.24
48 New Zealand 0.23
49 Brazil 0.16
50 Egypt 0.15
Sources: London Financial Group, White Clarke Group
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WHITE CLARKE GROUP GLOBAL LEASING REPORT
The outlook for 2016
As a conclusion to the Report we always try to anticipate
what the following years may bring for the global leasing
industry. The year 2016 has brought some significant
economic and political events, namely Brexit and the
election of Donald Trump to the US Presidency. Both
events have brought short-term turbulence upon the
global FX and stock markets. It is too early to assess how
these events may impact upon the economies of the world
and the global leasing industry in the medium term but
there may be some resulting economic instability in 2017.
What we can say with some authority is that the leasing
market in 2015 gained a greater share of the equipment
finance industry and reported growth in most of the regions
when expressed in their own currencies. This allows us an
optimistic outlook for coming years, and the last paragraphs
of this Report are intended to anticipate what is expected
from 2016. At the time of writing this Report (November
2016) only information from three quarters of 2016 are
available and therefore, further adjustments might need to
be taken into consideration when reviewing this section.
Four countries (US, China, UK and Germany) account
for more than 65% of total world volume, and their
perspective gives us enough indication of what the
future might hold.
US
Despite low financing costs and a strong dollar, the
Equipment Leasing & Finance Foundation (ELFF) forecasts
modest growth for 2016, of around 1%. This forecast was
made before the Trump Presidency results. Nonetheless,
it is expected that the total US equipment finance market
is going to be slightly greater than US$1 trillion in 2016.
China
The rapid growth of the Chinese leasing industry in
recent years is anticipated to continue and, despite the
cut in interest rates by the central bank aiming to draw
attention to banking loans instead, numerous leasing
opportunities remain available. The diversification of
funding sources in China is expected to bring advantages
to the leasing market and increase demand.
The issue by the Chinese State Council in 2015 of several
policies to support leasing is expected to increase new
business volume and encourage the use of leasing as an
asset finance mechanism in the future. Some companies
have already seen the effects and the number of lessors
in the Chinese market has now reached more than 3,500
with a penetration of 4%, expecting solid growth in 2016.
Germany
It is expected that the growth in private consumption and
the modest economic recovery of the eurozone is going
to increase GDP by 1.5% in real terms and the investment
in equipment by 3% in nominal terms in Germany. The
Association of German Leasing Companies states that
it is anticipates that new business volume will continue
to rise in 2016.
UK
The UK leasing industry has reported strong
performance during the first three quarters of 2016 and
new business volume is expected to increase around
8% during those nine months. The Finance & Leasing
Association expects that the publication of the new
accounting standard IFRS 16 should not affect the market
in 2016. The implications of Brexit on the domestic
financing market for 2017 and onwards are unknown.
We can anticipate that the industry in 2016 may
experience some regulatory challenges but overall
steady growth and bright prospects are anticipated.
his article was written by Brendan Gleeson, Group CEO
of White Clarke Group, a global financial services business
technology company, with offices in North America, Europe
and Asia Pacific. Brendan joined White Clarke Group in 2001
and, under his leadership, the group has grown to become
a global force in the auto finance and asset finance industry.
With over 25 years’ experience in the financial services
sector, including a number of board level appointments,
his special expertise is creating and delivering strategic
change initiatives. Before joining the company he was IT
Director at Bank of Ireland Asset & Motor Finance. Brendan
holds a first in Computer Science from Trinity College,
in addition to his MBA from Cranfield.
info@whiteclarkegroup.com
whiteclarkegroup.com
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