Specialized financing strengthens business support
Renting registers growth of 11.5% in new vehicle contracts; Leasing production grows 17%; Factoring increases 1.8% in every segment and not only in exports.
The first nine months of 2015 confirmed the growth tendency of Specialized Financing (Leasing, Renting and Factoring) and the fact that economic agents have resorted to these products in a growing way as an alternative to financing their investments.
Facts which the "Portuguese Leasing, Factoring and Renting Association" has verified throughout the country in the several regional seminars on financing which it has promoted in partnership with local business associations.
In the period under analysis, a production growth in Leasing, Renting and Factoring was verified, with the figures reinforcing the tendency verified since the end of the previous year, which already anticipated a slight economic recovery and in business investment.
Leasing registered an accumulated production growth of 17% in the first nine months of the year, supporting investments worth 1.135 billion euros.
Equipment Leasing contributed highly towards this positive result, specially the vehicle segment (+28.2%) and the equipment segment (+15.6%).
Leasing financed vehicles (light and heavy) with a value of 668 million euros. The equipment segment was responsible for contracts with the value of over 468 million euros.
The increase in the number of contracts verified in Real Estate Leasing also contributed towards the overall growth of Leasing in the first nine months of 2015. Real Estate Leasing registered a growth of 4.5% in value, with a corresponding production of 428 million euros.
Renting also registered a significant growth at the end of the first 9 months of the year, with a total of 20 thousand new vehicles acquired, more than 11.5% growth in relation with the same period of 2014, which translated into a total production of 378 million euros.
Renting was responsible for purchasing 12.5% of all new vehicles sold in Portugal during this timeframe.
Economic recovery leads to growth in Factoring
In the first nine months of this year, Factoring registered in total (Domestic, International and Confirming), a growth of 1.8%, inverting the negative tendency of last year, which translated into 16.325 billion euros in turnover.
In total, Domestic Factoring production reached 8.506 billion euros. The Factoring institutions which took Export and Import credits were responsible for managing collections of a growing percentage of the national commercial exchanges. The turnover in this international segment reached 2.107 billion euros.
As to Confirming (the management of payments to the suppliers of companies), it registered a production of 5.711 billion euros.
For Paulo Pinheiro, ALF's president, the results of the Specialized Financing sector "demonstrate that Leasing, Renting and Factoring are supporting the national economy and witnessed reinforced production growths which they already presented in the past, even during a period of crisis, which demonstrates that Specialized Financing is without a doubt a very flexible financial solution for companies, which can adapt to any context and presents itself as an excellent means of financing".
ALF's president continued, stating that until the end of the current year "we expect this growth of Specialized Financing to continue, which will confirm a very significant increase in production when compared with the figures from the end of last year".
As to 2016, Paulo Pinheiro prefers not to make concrete predictions, stating that "we will have to wait until we know what awaits us in terms of the political and economic conjuncture of the next months. Be that as it may and as I already stated, Specialized Financing, due to its flexibility and adaptability and also taking into account the trust that companies have deposited in our products, leads us to to anticipate a growth in line with that of this year".
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