Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) members provided asset finance worth £1, 851m (2,148m) in May 2013, up 2% on on the same period last year.
The total amount for the month without high value items was £1,850m, up 4%, year on year.
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For May, IT equipment finance saw the strongest growth compared to May 2012, at 79% to £158m, though business equipment finance and commercial vehicle finance both also grew, by 12% to £161m and 7% to £386m respectively.
Plant and machinery remained flat at £347m, but car finance, the largest asset finance market, shrank 15% to £576m in May, year-on-year.
Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance shrank by 41%, to £8m, in May.
Total asset finance also grew by 1% for the three months to May, year on year, to £5, 669m, though it was flat, at £5,549m, without high value items.
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By GlobalDataFor these three months IT equipment finance was again the fastest growing area, at 26%, to £403m, ahead of business equipment finance, up 7% to £495m, and commercial vehicle finance, up 3% to £1,241m.
Car finance fell by 6% over the period to £1, 846, while plant and machinery fell 2% to £1,142.
Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance grew 40% to £478m.
For the twelve month period to May, however, the total market, including high value items, shrank 1% to £21, 327m, though it grew 1% to £20, 689m if high value items are excluded.
Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance grew 40% to £478m, and IT equipment finance also saw strong growth over the year, up 16% to £1, 454.
Car finance grew 2% to £6,668m, despite falling significantly for the three months to May, and plant and machinery grew 1% to £4,212m.
However the amount of commercial vehicle finance shrank 2% over the year to £4,553 and the amount of business equipment finance also fell, by 8%, to £1,822.
Julian Rose, head of asset finance at the FLA commented "It’s good to see the industry returning such healthy figures, showing that more and more firms see asset finance as an attractive alternative to other types of business finance."
Recent data from Leaseurope showed the UK industry had grown to become the largest market in European leasing, outstripping German growth by more than eight percentage points last year.
