Finance and Leasing Association members have funded an 8-year-high 33% of all business equipment acquired in the year leading to June 2017, up from 31.8% in the previous year.
Year on year figures for July show that while overall asset finance new business fell 1% to £2.6bn, mid-ticket and low-ticket deals up to £20m grew by 6%, and now account for £2.4bn.
In the 12 months leading to July, total asset finance grew by 7% to £31.7b. Assets for transportation led the way, with finance for aircraft, ships and rolling stock rising by 16%, while IT equipment registered the only slowdown among FLA’s categories, at -3%. Car finance for businesses was up by 7%, in contrast to the private sector, which was down by the same percentage.
The products dealt out the most were consecutively lease and hire purchases (52%), operating leases (22%) and finance leases (12%), with the remainder being other types of packages.
More than half of the deals were finalised through direct finance, while brokerage and sales accounted for 18% and 30% respectively.
