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Car Leasing
As the Indian economy is booming and corporate is doing brisk
business, car leasing opportunities is
supposed to bring next wave in automobile sector. Car leasing
has become big business in India. The
corporate sector is increasingly hiring vehicles from car
leasing companies. Though this concept will take
time to shapeup, the corporate sector has already accounted for
nearly 6 lakh of the 12 lakh cars soldlast year in India.
Earlier, most Indian companies tend to buy cars or provide cash
to employees (in salaries) as car
allowance. Recently, the companies view this as an extra expense
on individual employees. But if the
company provides the facility through car leasing, their
expenditure will be reduced. Thus it minimizes
the pressure on the company of sustaining such allowance. The
concept has already gained popularity in
US and Europe.
Advantages:
Car leasing has several advantages
The car leasing allows the corporate to use the car without
thehassles attached with ownership and maintenance. The lease is
granted for a specific period against a
rental under an agreement signed by the company and the car
leasing company. Leasing a car also helps
to avoid certain car related risks, usually borne by the owning
companies.
The outsourcing of cars for the companies will also attract tax
benefits for the company. It will reduce
car related hassles like maintenance, servicing, insurance,
replacement & repairs and depreciating
value of the asset. Outsourcing will also reduce the expenditure
on hiring drivers. Not only corporate,
but independent individuals can also lease cars from these car
leasing companies. After the lease period,
the individual can also exchange it for a latest car.
Whats new in the sector?
There are around 30,000 cars under leasing operation in India.
The leading car lease companies in India
like the Leaseplan, Hertz India and Arval (an arm of BNP
Paribas) are now taking active interest to build
the future of car leasing in India. Arval has ambitious plans
for India as it has set a target to own a fleet
of 10,000 vehicles over the next five years. Currently, the
company owns 125 vehicles which are
available for lease in Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi. The
company has plans to spread in the
emerging cities like Pune, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Ahmedabad.
Arval plans to approach the corporate companies creating
awareness about car leasing. The company
has come up with pronged strategies to buy their official cars
or lease the same to them on costeffective rentals.
Leaseplan and Hertz India have decided to invest Rs 2,000 crore
and Rs 500 crore, respectively, in
order to meet the potential of the lease market, over the next
five years. Leaseplan currently has a
fleet of 12,000 cars and also plans to expand to 40,0000 cars by
the end of 2012. Hertz India leasing
company, which has a small fleet of 2,000 cars plans to increase
it to 9,000 cars by 2010.
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As Indian car market is flooding with new models equipped with
modern technologies, the mindset of
buyers is changing, now nobody wants to keep the same car for
long. And car leasing provides a perfect
option for them.
Aircraft Leasing
Indian airlines and private non-scheduled air operators are
together likely to add around 1,000 aircraft
and 250 helicopters over the next five years, according to
Planning Commission estimates.
While the scheduled airlines are likely to add around 370
aircraft in their fleet, non-scheduled operators
could induct 300 business jets, 300 small planes and 250
helicopters during this period, owing to
heightened demand.
A working group set up by the plan body to formulate the 12th
Plan for the civil aviation sector said
the Indian carriers were anticipating a significant growth in
air traffic, which is leading them to add
around 370 aircraft worth about Rs 150,000 crore.
"Fleet expansion at this scale would require airlines to explore
multiple funding options including capital
markets, long-term borrowings and leasing," the group has
said.
Going by a KPMG report which estimated fleet expansion by the
Indian airlines, the plan panel group
said Jet Airways was expected to add 79 planes by 2017,
Kingfisher 78, IndiGo 69, SpiceJet 68, Air India
40, GoAir 22 and JetLite 20.
The estimated value of these 376 aircraft was Rs 147,600 crore,
it said.
The working group estimates that over Rs 20,000 crore would be
invested in general aviation till 2017,
with private non-scheduled operators expected to add 600 small
aircraft and business jets and about
250 helicopters.
To finance their aircraft acquisition plans, airlines were
resorting to multiple methods like direct lending,
operational lease, finance lease and sale-and-leaseback. The
last option has lately become popular as "it
allows airlines to optimize their cash flow", the Planning
Commission group said.
Leaseback is a financial transaction where one sells an asset
and leases it back for a long-term.
Therefore, one continues to be able to use the asset but no
longer owns it. Leaseback is very often used
in commercial aviation to essentially take back the cash
invested in assets.
The group has estimated that the Indian airline industry would
suffer a huge debt burden of USD 20
billion in 2011-12 and recommended "significant and continuous
investment" to give a boost to the
cash-strapped sector.
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It also pointed out that the industry faced "many taxes" like
those on fuel, aircraft leases, airport
charges, air passenger tickets, air navigation service charges,
maintenance costs, fuel throughput fees
and other such charges.
Identifying some 'key enablers' which would be required to
achieve the projected growth in the civil
aviation sector over the 12th five-year plan period, the plan
body recommended rationalization of taxeson jet fuel and investment
by foreign airlines in Indian carriers.
Other 'key enablers' include steps to help Indian carriers reach
foreign skies and expand international
operations, thrust on technology and innovation and granting
support to the airlines to provide
connectivity to Tier-II and Tier-III cities.
It proposed a projected total outlay for the sector at over Rs
54,743 crore for the entire plan period of
2012-17, including Rs 32,963.67 crore for Air India and Rs
17,500 crore for the Airports Authority of
India.
