Arval, part of BNP Paribas group, has a 5,300-unit fleet under management.
“In 2014, we plan to reach a fleet of 6,000 cars, up almost 20% from last year. At the beginning of the year we aimed for 5,500 cars, but owing to the figures of the first four months, when we logged four times more orders than in the same period of last year, we revised our target upwardly,” underscored Boiangiu.
Operational leasing companies were seriously hurt in the first half of last year by the introduction of the new fiscal code, which put a lid on expense deduction, limiting market growth at just 3.5% after several years of two-digit increases.
In the first quarter of this year, the operational leasing market advanced by 3.4% from the same period of last year, going beyond the 43,000-unit threshold.
Thus, in the first three months of this year around 2,300 new cars were registered by operational leasing companies, accounting for over 14% in overall registrations of new passenger cars and light commercial vehicles.
“1Q economic growth is being felt by the operational leasing market as well this year. Through the nature of our company, we meet executives of various fields and we can see strong optimism on the market. We can see high growth potential as regards fleet rental in industries such as oil and gas, and energy. Increases can emerge in more fields considering the rising consumption”.
In 2013, Arval posted revenue of EUR34 million, up 18% on the year and for 2014 targets EUR40 million.
This year, the overall operational leasing market is likely to reach around 45,000 units.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)