Leasing companies sell thousands of repossessed goods

Autor: Angela Placinta 05.11.2009

Leasing companies are trying to resell thousands of goods repossessed from clients that could no longer pay their instalments, with offers ranging from cars and lorries to yachts, villas, kitchen ovens and equipment for beauty salons.



Since the beginning of this year, financing companies have been faced with a wave of goods repossessions, especially cars that now sit in car parks all day and wait for buyers.
"The number of repossessions is currently down, and companies have 'cleaned up' their client portfolios somewhat. For non-specialised companies like us, cars dominate the offer of repossessed goods. Clients that could not pay their instalments tend to be small and medium-sized enterprises, which act in a chain reaction: if the construction company goes down, so does the distributor of construction materials, and so on," says Claudiu Stanescu, general manager of BCR Leasing, the second-largest company on the leasing market at the end of last year.
The company set up a specialised website dedicated to resales, with its offer of repossessed goods including no less than 430 cars, lorries, various equipment and ATVs.
An ATV, for instance, costs between 1,900 and 3,000 euros, and the cheapest car, a Chevrolet Spark from 2008 that has travelled 26,000 kilometres, costs 3,500 euros (prices include VAT). The most expensive car put up for resale by BCR Leasing is a Chrysler 300 from 2005, which had travelled 41,000 kilometres, at a price of 22,000 euros.
Companies with the largest number of repossessed goods are Afin Leasing (1,200), VB Leasing (1,170), Impuls Leasing (750) and BCR Leasing (430). However, not all companies publish their offer of repossessed goods on their websites, so the actual number of repossessions on the entire market is not known. According to some estimates, it has already exceeded 10,000.
Among thousands of repossessed cars and lorries, there is also a yacht. Bavaria 37 Cruiser (one year-old) is put up for sale on the website of TBI Leasing, at the price of 79,000 euros.