leasing market

The Romanian leasing market is likely to have dropped by over 50 percent in the first quarter of 2009.

Bas Hoekstra, vice chairman of the country’s leasing association, told Leasing Life that although overall figures for the first three months are not available yet, he expects the market to have at least halved in the January-March period.

“The industry performed very badly in the last quarter” he said.

“Cars are not being sold at the moment, so there is a huge drop in volumes in that sector of leasing”.

Hoekstra said that real estate and equipment leasing were also significantly hit: Real estate is suffering badly because banks and leasing companies don’t lend as easily as they did before, and secondly equity providers are no longer willing to invest in projects, they are investing elsewhere or not investing at all.

He added that construction equipment and commercial vehicles were down partly because the government was not investing enough in building new roads and infrastructures.

This, he said, has reduced the business of construction companies, many of whom are customers of leasing companies.

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