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The Leading Leasing Companies in Bulgaria 2020

19.06.2020 Written by Tanushev

Many future lessees are interested in the size and sustainability of leasing companies before entering into business relationships with them. At the same time, such a summary ranking does not exist in public. An indirect way to rank the leading leasing companies in Bulgaria is provided by the Commercial Register (with all its restrictions and delays in publications of a year or two).

Methodology

The latest available data published in the Commercial Register are from the financial statements for 2018. Accordingly, we can compare leasing companies by the size and dynamics of their assets. The predominant part of the assets of a leasing company being composed of its leasing portfolio. The logic here is that if the assets are large and growing rapidly, then the leasing service of the company is good and in demand. We can also compare leasing companies by their profit. Although the latter is not an absolute measure, the profit of a leasing company still gives some indication of the sustainability of a leasing company and its competitiveness.

As the delay in publishing the reports in the Commercial Register is about 1-2 years, so as not to completely lose touch with 2020 and the mergers and acquisitions during the last years, we still consider leasing companies or leasing groups of two or more leasing companies, as were registered in mid-2020.

Ranking of the leading leasing companies in Bulgaria

Here is how the ranking of the top 10 leasing companies in Bulgaria looks like:

leading leasing companies in bulgaria 2020

In fact, these are all leasing companies and leasing groups in the country, which have assets in excess of BGN 100 million. These leading 10 leasing companies and groups hold 80% of the entire leasing portfolio of Bulgaria.

At first glance, the chart outlines an interesting fact: the leading leasing companies in Bulgaria are divided exactly equally – 5 general leasing companies and 5 captive leasing companies. And while the portfolio of general leasing companies is three times larger than that of captives (exceeding BGN 3 billion), the dynamics of portfolio growth is definitely in favor of captive leasing companies, whose portfolios grow by an average of 24% on an annual basis, and in the case of Volvo Financial Services, they reached the remarkable 44% annual growth 2017/2018.

The top 5 leasing companies are part of large international financial groups and have 57% of the total assets of leasing companies in Bulgaria.

The analysis of the data shows that the leasing market in Bulgaria has a new leader in 2020 and this is the leasing group DSK – OTP Leasing. The leasing group tops the list after the merger of the parent banks (DSK Bank and SoGe ExpressBank) and the subsequent merger of the subsidiary leasing companies, which ended in early 2020. The subsidiary leasing group DSK is rather expanded and includes in addition to the two general leasing companies (DSK Leasing and OTP Leasing), several specialized companies for leasing of used cars, for operating leasing and fleet management, etc. The total assets of the DSK Leasing Group exceed BGN 1 billion and are as much as BGN 100 million more than the second company in the ranking. Apart from having the most assets, the consolidated reports of DSK Leasing Group show also the largest profit in the sector for 2018, exceeding BGN 20 million, as well as the extremely fast growth of assets of almost 20% on an annual basis. The company with the largest contribution to the leading position of the group is OTP Leasing (former SoGeLease Bulgaria), which is approximately three times bigger, more profitable and faster-growing than its sister company DSK Leasing.

top 10 leasing companies in Bulgaria

The second-largest leasing company is the former first – Unicredit Leasing. The company again belongs to a banking group – Unicredit Group and its parent bank also tops the rankings of banks in Bulgaria. Although also the result of numerous mergers and acquisitions, today Unicredit Leasing has no other subsidiary leasing companies, but only one insurance broker (like most of the leading leasing companies). The assets of Unicredit Leasing reach almost BGN 900 million, and the profit for 2018 exceeds BGN 10 million. The growth of assets on an annual basis is relatively modest of only 3.36%. The main specialization of the company is the leasing of machinery and vehicles.

The sum of the assets of the next 3 leasing companies: UBB Interlease, Raiffeisen Leasing, and Deutsche Leasing are approximately equal to the assets of the leasing group of the leader – DSK

captive leasing companies

The next 5 leasing companies are captive auto-leasing companies, ie. companies serving primarily or exclusively the needs of one or more car dealers.

leading lessors in Bulgaria

The leading captive leasing company and sixth in the overall ranking is Porsche Leasing Bulgaria with assets topping BGN 200 million and rapid growth of 21% on an annual basis. Porsche Leasing serves the Porsche, Audi, and VW dealers.

Second in the ranking of captive companies and seventh in the overall ranking is Sofia Leasing with assets of BGN 168 million and a relatively modest annual growth of 2.5%. The company was established in support of the Peugeot dealer in Bulgaria.

Third in the ranking of captive companies and eighth in the overall ranking is Eurolease Group with consolidated assets exceeding BGN 137 and recording growth of nearly 20%. Eurolease Group is the leasing group in a larger holding – Eurohold. The group includes several leasing companies with different orientations – leasing of new cars, leasing of used cars, rent-a-car and operating leasing, etc. Eurolease Group can be classified as a captive leasing group, as their efforts are mainly focused on servicing Eurohold’s sister car dealers, who are representatives of a wide range of car manufacturers – Opel, Mazda, Fiat, Renault, Nissan, and many others.

The last two leasing companies in the top ten ranking are again captive, but this time of heavy vehicle manufacturers. These are Scania Finance and VFS (Volvo Financial Services) Bulgaria. They manage assets of BGN 133 and 120 million, respectively, and record the fastest growth among the leading leasing companies of 33% and 44%, respectively. The very names of the leasing companies are eloquent for their main line of business – leasing of the respective brands of heavy vehicles.

The other smaller leasing companies are again divided between general leasing companies and captive companies, this time the assets of the captive companies predominate. In addition to the companies that specialize in financial leasing, it should be noted that there is entirely focused on operating leasing and fleet management – ALD Automotive, which manages assets of BGN 88 million and thus ranks 12th in the overall ranking.

Learn more about all Bulgarian leasing companies and visit their sites.

Analysis of the Bulgarian leasing market, Leasing Market