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Societe Generale leads the 2020 AFE50 rankings

10/12/2020
AF50 Europe 2020 - Societe Generale

Supporting their clients and partners through tough times while prioritising CSR initiatives and sustainability, Alfa client Societe Generale has been named as the biggest asset finance company in Europe, for another consecutive year.

The Asset Finance Europe 50 (AFE50) 2020, sponsored by Alfa, provides insights into the European business equipment and car leasing industry, whose 50 largest members make up a community with lease receivables of over €300 billion. 

Before the Covid-19 crisis, the AFE50 reports that European equipment lessors grew their portfolios by a combined total of €16 billion. This placed the industry in a strong position to cope with the crisis. 

Societe Generale Equipment Finance has been named as the largest European asset finance company in the 2020 AFE 50.

SGEF's CEO Jochen Jehmlich said, ‘Despite the very challenging and chaotic year we have all been through, Societe Generale Equipment Finance (SGEF) has shown strong resilience.’

Discussing SGEF’s response to the crisis, Jehmlich said, ‘our day-to-day focus has been dealing with deferral requests, managing governmental support plans, adapting to compulsory moratoriums, adjusting to more prudent cash management from clients, overcoming delivery issues, and developing innovative financing solutions.’

Looking to the changing landscape of the future, he said, ‘We can imagine that sustainable topics will increase next year in the minds of decision makers. If companies can afford it (once they have recovered from the crisis), we anticipate an appetite for green assets. The nature of our industry positions us well in the environmental battle as we are constantly financing new assets.’ 

The AFE50 survey is based on the latest published financial accounts of listed companies, usually with December 2019 year-ends.

The top 10 European asset finance companies together delivered €12.2 billion growth to their asset finance receivables last year. Six of the top ten accounted for nearly 60% of all the growth recorded by AFE companies in 2019.

The three largest auto captives have total receivables of €33.2 billion, an increase of nearly €3 billion on the previous year, as market demand for new cars was growing strongly before the pandemic. 

Anticipating 2020's results in light of the industry's strong performance in 2019, Alfa’s CEO Andrew Denton said, ‘this time next year, although the bottom line will be markedly different, I don't think we'll see such a different overall story. And the reason for that is: those companies who are on top of their game, and stay there, do so by being ready for anything; by adapting, taking opportunities, reducing risk and always having somewhere to go when the landscape shifts. Each and every one has an aptitude for maximising the business they do, in a lasting way.’ 

You can download the AFE50 2020 report from AFI’s website.