ALF announces sustainable growth in Specialized Financing until September

CONFIRMING GROWS ALMOST 50% COMPARED TO 2019. RENTING SURPASSES LAST YEAR'S VALUES, DESPITE DELAYS OF VEHICLES FOR DELIVERY

Renting, Factoring and Leasing, in its real estate aspect, completed the first three quarters of 2022 with double-digit growth compared to the previous year. The exception was Equipment and Vehicle Leasing, with the shortage of new vehicles at dealerships meaning a slight 1% drop in production of this specialized financing product. 

For Factoring, the year 2022 is confirming the dynamics it showed last year, when it recovered from the declines seen with the pandemic. From January to September of this year, Factoring surpassed 30 billion euros, meaning a gain of more than 20% compared to last year and also to 2019. The total for the sector meant 30.5 billion euros, up 23.8% from around 24.7 billion for the three quarters of last year and the similar figure for 2019.

The biggest boost came from Confirming (a service for managing payments due to suppliers, allowing Confirming's customer to free up capital for other purposes), with the 13.5 billion euros of support given by ALF members to businesses, meaning a 33.2% increase compared to the same period of 2021. More impactful, this value of receivables is almost 44% above the value of 2019. In turn, international factoring had a rise of 24.0%, to 3.9 billion euros of turnover, while domestic factoring grew 15.4%, to 13.2 billion euros, surpassing the values of the pre-pandemic year. 

Leasing registered an accumulated growth of 2.7%, to 1.6 billion euros. The data revealed by the Portuguese Association of Leasing, Factoring and Renting also reveal the clear resilience of Real Estate Leasing, whose growth of 11.5% over the three quarters to the end of September offset the slight contraction of 1% in Equipment and Vehicle Leasing.

Real Estate Leasing reached 571.4 million euros of production, up from 512.5 million last year, but still short of 610.4 million in 2019. Companies and public entities maintain their preponderance in Real Estate Leasing, but liberal professionals and individuals, despite representing only 6% of production, moved 27.1 million euros between January and September of this year.

In Renting, the drop in the supply of new vehicles did not invalidate a growth compared to the previous year, with 8.8% more vehicles and 18.8% more value in accumulated production. Among the 19107 vehicles hired from January to September, the growth in the number of commercial vehicles surpassed that of passenger vehicles, compared to the previous year, with commercial vehicles up 20.4% and passenger vehicles up approximately 8.3%.

In the opposite direction, the accumulated production of Renting shows a loss of 25.4%, in the number of vehicles, in comparison with pre-pandemic values, prior to the constraints that contributed to the shortage of semiconductors, penalizing the manufacture and delivery of cars to consumers.

Symptomatic of the confidence gained by Renting is the reinforcement of the fleet even when the comparison is made with years of normality in the automobile market. With 125 thousand vehicles in circulation, the fleet is 4.6% above the volume verified in September 2021. In retrospect, the variation in the fleet, in comparison with the performance of Renting in the period before the pandemic, is equally positive in approximately 5%. The agility of the Renting sector has contributed to this improvement, with the search for new solutions for customers, including the extension of contract terms and the recourse to Renting used vehicles, in order to ensure the existence of mobility solutions for companies and individuals.

"The pandemic, followed by the gradual rise in inflation and the beginning of the war in Ukraine, led to increased uncertainty in consumer and business sentiment" admits Luís Augusto, president of ALF, stressing that "specialized financing remains, as in previous crises, a guarantee of support for the economy and its agents, whether individuals or companies, whether in the public or private sectors. In line with our message, ALF members have deepened their support for business, contributing to the growth of national GDP. The statistical data now released, for three quarters of the year of 2022, follows the most dynamic sectors of the economy, surpassing values that were seen before the pandemic" points Luís Augusto.