Afin Leasing, the captive company of lorries and commercial vehicles importer Iveco, has repossessed 1,200 vehicles since the beginning of this year from clients that have a difficult time paying their instalments. On the overall leasing market, the total number of repossessed vehicles has already surpassed 10,000. Leasing companies have recovered hundreds of lorries, with transporters suffering significant turnover declines and relinquishing part of their fleet because of inability to pay their instalments. “We currently have 750 vehicles in stock, and we sell 50 units per month on average. We keep the repossessed vehicles in our own car park,” says Catalin Giuvelea, deputy manager of Afin Leasing (Iveco Capital). Afin Leasing is one of the largest companies on the financial leasing market, with a value of financed goods amounting to 307 million euros in 2008, up 179% against last year. In the first half of this year, the value of financed goods fell by 22%, to 81.7 million euros.
The decline in Afin Leasing’s business was much lower than the 74% market decline. The overall value of financing granted by leasing companies fell to 777 million euros in the first half of the year, compared with 2.9 billion euros in the similar period of 2008.