Asset finance market see 7% growth in April

New figures released by the Finance & Leasing Association (FLA) show that asset finance new business (primarily leasing and hire purchase) grew by 7% in April, compared with the same month in 2018.

New business in the plant and machinery finance and business equipment finance sectors was up by 8% and 9% respectively, while commercial vehicle finance new business increased by 23% over the same period.

Geraldine Kilkelly, Head of Research and Chief Economist at the FLA, said “The asset finance market has made a great start to the second quarter of 2019, recording its seventh consecutive month of new business growth in April.”

“Growth in new finance for commercial vehicles has been particularly robust in recent months, which may in part reflect the bringing forward of investment ahead of the introduction of EU regulation that requires new CVs to have smart tachographs from June 2019.”

	Apr 2019	% change on prev. year	3 months to Apr 2019	% change on prev. year	12 months to Apr 2019	% change on prev. year
Total FLA asset finance (£m)	2,938	+7	8,971	+11	33,904	+7
Total excluding high value (£m)	2,816	+10	8,418	+9	31,586	+5
Data Extracts: By asset:
Plant and machinery finance (£m)	603	8	1,852	7	7,213	9
Commercial vehicle finance (£m)	827	23	2,511	23	8,774	14
IT equipment finance (£m)	184	16	585	7	2,833	16
Business equipment finance (£m)	225	9	665	6	2,691	4
Car finance (£m)	889	2	2,430	1	8,897	-3
Aircraft, ships and rolling stock finance (£m)	15	0	143	174	384	34
By channel:
Direct finance (£m)	1,476	16	4,263	10	15,951	5
Broker-introduced finance (£m)	561	10	1,735	17	6,411	15
Sales finance (£m)	779	0	2,421	3	9,224	0
By product:
Finance leasing (£m)	370	16	1,152	16	4,289	11
Operating leasing (£m)	551	13	1,619	0	6,109	-7
Lease/Hire purchase (£m)	1,748	9	5,104	11	19,001	11
Other finance (£m)	205	11	797	29	3,252	9