Specialized financing maintains sustainable growth and strong support for the economy

The Portuguese Association of Leasing, Factoring and Renting (ALF) has released the statistics for the third quarter of 2024. The first nine months of the year were marked by significant gains in Leasing and Renting and the consolidation of Factoring.

Renting grew by 14.4%. By the end of the third quarter of 2024, more than 28,000 new light vehicles acquired through Renting had been put into circulation on Portuguese roads, for a total value of 862.3 million euros, which is equivalent to a growth of more than 24%.

As far as the fleet is concerned, in the third quarter of 2024, there were more than 136,000 vehicles in circulation on Portuguese roads under Renting contracts, an increase of 3.2% compared to the same period in 2023.

Vehicle and Equipment Leasing is also following the upward trend, with a positive evolution of 16.5% compared to the third quarter of 2023, with a financing value for light and heavy vehicles and equipment of more than 1.6 billion euros. Light and heavy vehicles account for 72% of Vehicle and Equipment Leasing, at 1.2 billion euros, with the remaining 28% going to equipment.

Real Estate Leasing registered a strong growth of 43%, with this specialized financing product making progress in terms of contracts and the amount financed compared to the same period in 2023. By the end of the third quarter of 2024, real estate worth 669 million euros had been financed, with around 16 million (2%) going to private customers.

Regarding Factoring, after several years of exponential growth, it is now entering a phase of consolidation in the market, having recorded a slight reduction of 0.1% in the 3rd quarter of 2024, taking on more than 32.3 billion euros in receivables. Confirming (managing companies' payments to their suppliers) grew by almost 5%, which corresponds to an increase of more than 700 million euros in receivables compared to the same period in 2023, totaling 15.5 billion euros.

For Luís Augusto, President of the Portuguese Association of Leasing, Factoring and Renting, “these results reflect the ability of the sectors we represent to adapt and innovate, accompanying the strategic changes in the priorities of companies and individuals. The significant growth in Leasing and Renting demonstrates the growing uptake of sustainable solutions, driven by the energy transition and the demand for more flexible and efficient financing models. Factoring, on the other hand, has stabilized after years of strong growth and continues to assert itself as an essential tool for companies' liquidity management with the high figures it achieves in a challenging international economic context.”