Better investment climate boosts growth in leasing More than €50 billion new business

According to the results of the most recent Ifo Business Survey in Leasing, the leasing sector in Germany has experienced dynamic growth. New business in 2004 grew by 2.2% to €47 billion, whereby real-estate leasing declined by 33.5% but the broad business in equipment leasing grew by a considerable 9.2%. In the current year, the leasing sector was boosted by the revival of investment activity and especially by the growth in domestic automobile registrations. New business in leasing in 2005 will outdo the previous-year result by almost 9%. Both the further-expanding equipment leasing (+5.7%) as well as real-estate leasing (+34%) will contribute to this development. Since total investment in the economy (without housing construction) is forecast to increase by only a nominal 0.8%, leasing's share of investments will increase in 2005 from 17.9% to 19.3%. The share of equipment leasing will grow from 24.1% to 24.6%. This means that almost a quarter of all new movable capital goods in Germany will be acquired via leasing. At this level the investment share of leasing in Germany would only lag behind the international market leader, the United States, by 5 percentage points. With the further recovery of plant and equipment spending expected for 2006 (a nominal plus of 4%), the leasing companies will remain on a growth path.