The Czech leasing industry is the largest in Central Europe and the 13th largest in the whole of Europe. Over the past three years, the volume of assets financed has remained on largely the same level at around CZK 100 billion, but the size of the operations of the leading leasing companies has continued to grow as they develop retail finance products such as instalment sales, consumer credits and operating lease including the more sophisticated fleet management and full service leasing products. The bedrock of leasing is car finance but the overall share of this form of asset finance is gradually declining as truck and equipment finance continues to grow. Due to disadvantageous tax treatment, real estate leasing is still relatively small compared to the growth in the Czech real estate market. The market is highly concentrated with the 15 largest companies representing the majority of the market and there is continuing industry consolidation.
Industry issues
- Increasing competition in retail finance from banks and other financial institutions
- VAT changes resulting from EU accession made finance leases less attractive to non-VAT registered customers
- Reductions in tax depreciation lives (except for cars) from 2005 make leasing less attractive
- Financing fixed interest rate leasing products
- Cost-cutting
Industry-specific services
- Development of tax-efficient retail and commercial products
(eg. cash pooling, financial derivatives) and financial arrangements (eg. leasing, factoring)
- Accounting and tax advice regarding derivatives
- Merger and acquisitions related structuring advice (issues surrounding portfolio transfer, fair values)
- Assistance with cost-income ratio issues – increasing profitability
- Advice on accounting transformation to IFRS
Brochure
Publications
