China’s extraordinary growth story in recent years has certainly provided a fertile ground for the development of the equipment leasing industry.  The growth of the leasing market has been enabled by many factors: The overall growth of the economy together with rapid growth of the underlying equipment market combined with mostly single-digit leasing penetration rates. Additionally manufacturers and channel players are increasingly recognizing the need to provide an equipment finance solution to complete their offering to their customers. All these factors will continue to ensure a healthy future market for leasing in China.

中国近来来异乎寻常的经济发展为设备租赁行业的成长提供了肥沃的土壤。这样的成长来自于多方面的推动：总体经济增长下，仅有不到一成租赁渗透率的潜在设备市场的快速增长；越来越多的制造商和渠道销售商不断增长的设备租赁需求。所有这些因素都将会持续地确保中国租赁市场的稳健发展。

Market Segments

市场部分

The equipment leasing and asset finance market has many segments and, in China, they are developing in different ways and at individual paces.  Potential new market entrants would be well-advised to take an in-depth look into the relevant segment. For example, the IT and construction equipment segments are in general more mature than the agricultural equipment segment. In some areas, competition has already built up significantly, whereas in others, for the brave, the field is wide open. This not only applies to differing asset types, but also to business models. True sales aid finance-type business, catering for small transaction sizes is still very rare, if not completely absent.  Yet for lessors, China continues to present new opportunities. For example, lease finance concepts for energy saving and energy efficiency is an area of great potential. Against a background of China’s drive for energy efficiency, leasing can play an important part helping to contribute to sustainable energy solutions.

在中国，设备租赁和资产融资市场有多个部分组成并按照各自不同的轨迹在发展着。潜在的市场新入者会被告诫对相关的其他形式进行深入观察。例如，IT和建筑设备租赁市场总体上要比农用机械租赁市场成熟。在一些地区，竞争已经异常激烈，而在另一些地区则还有广阔的空间。这不仅仅体现在不同的租赁形式上，还体现在商业模式上。真正为满足小额交易而采用融资方式进行的业务依然很少。然而对于租赁公司来说，中国在持续不断地提供着新的市场机遇。例如，为能源节约和能源使用效率而考虑的租赁融资理念会带来一个潜在的广阔的市场。相对于中国以大量的能源消耗而驱动的经济增长模式，租赁将会在帮助推动可持续的能源利用方案方面发挥重要作用。

Generally a rapid development of the market has been witnessed across the board, with a number of new players established in recent years – to positive effect. The increased knowledge base and the growth in general awareness of leasing as a valuable finance tool have supported industry expansion and development.

总之，近年来一些新的租赁商的涌现推进了这个市场的快速发展。不断增长的行业认知水平以及把租赁作为一个有价值的融资工具的意识，都对租赁行业的延伸和发展产生了支持作用。

Customer Mix

客户结构

The banking sector in China is very strong, remains comparatively awash with liquidity and very competitive. True asset based financing is not yet widespread.  Typically in China leasing customers can be found across the business spectrum; local companies large and small, together with foreign companies operating in China. Moreover leasing is, not surprisingly, often the finance product of choice for the SME segment in China. This underlines the main drivers for leasing in China; liquidity and cash-flow. Customers are less interested in balance sheet or asset management considerations than they are with an additional affordable credit line. This is in line with the typical development curve of an emerging leasing market.  This means, in most cases, that development is first driven by relatively simple products that provide liquidity, which over time, moves into more sophisticated products such as operating leases, total-costs-of-ownership concepts and managed services.

具有相当充裕流动性和竞争力的银行业在中国非常强大。融资获取资产的方式倒并不太流行。典型意义上，在中国的租赁客户存在于各个业务领域中大大小小的本地企业以及外资企业。另外，租赁是中国众多中小企业经常选择的融资工具。流动性和现金流，这也是租赁在中国发展的重要驱动力。相比资产负债表或是资产管理方面的考虑，客户更关注于他们是否具有增加的且是可承受的信用。这和在一个购并租赁市场上的典型发展轨迹是一致的。这也意味着，多数案例中，租赁业的发展首先是由仅提供流动性的相对简单的产品驱动的，之后，才开始转入那些复杂的应用中，比如经营性租赁、总持有成本理念以及服务管理等。

Asset finance requirements in China also depend on the individual customer’s background.  A large multinational company in China would almost certainly have a different motivation to enter into a lease transaction than would a smaller local company. Lessors which can leverage the experience and expertise of a global network are best placed to support the market development process in terms of market approach, product development and operational best practice.

在中国，融资租赁的需求还取决于每个客户的个体背景。对于租赁交易，大型的跨国公司比小型的本土公司具有更多不同的考量点。根据市场推广方式、产品发展以及最佳运营实践，具有全球性专业网络支持经验的租赁商才能够更好地支持这一市场的发展。

Vendor Leasing

供应商租赁

In terms of sales and marketing, China certainly offers a challenge in terms of its size and geography, requiring a continent rather than a country mindset when planning service delivery and sales resources. Vendor-driven leasing organizations have a particular advantage, since the vendor sales network can be harnessed to cascade the sales approach. Nevertheless, continual education and training of the vendor sales force is a key to success demanding considerable time and resource.

对于市场营销而言，中国广阔的疆域是一个挑战，在配置服务提供和销售资源时，应更多地考虑它的区域广阔性特点而非国家心态。以供应商驱动的租赁机构具有特殊的优势，因为供应商的销售网络就是现成的销售渠道。不过，耗费大量的时间和资源对销售团队的持续不断的教育培训仍是一个取得成功的关键。

The Human Factor

人的因素

In common with other geographies, the quality of the people employed in the business is what differentiates one organization from another. This is particularly true in the wholly service based leasing business. In China, given the relatively short history of leasing and the general “war for talent”, this is an ongoing challenge to organizations seeking to build a successful business. In more recent years, the situation has eased a little - following the increased number of players in the market, most of whom have invested significantly in training. Nevertheless, the pool of available experienced talent remains a fairly small. Development of, and investment in, people needs to be a major focus and is the foundation for successfully meeting the vendors’ or customers’ demands in terms of products, service or speed of delivery.  Providing world class service must be on the top of the agenda for any provider in China, particularly so as the market matures and customers become more demanding.

同其他方面一样，一个企业员工的质量是它有别于其他企业的重要因素。对于完全是基于租赁而提供服务的企业尤为如此。在中国，较短的租赁业发展历史以及人才争夺战是一个持续的挑战。 近些年来，这一状况已有所改善，越来越多的企业进入这一领域并且在人才培养上投入甚多。然而，有经验的人才依然很少。人力资源上的投入与发展应成为关注重点，它是成功满足供应商或客户对于产品、服务以及响应速度等方面的基石。随着市场日益成熟和客户要求越来越高，提供世界级的服务必将成为在中国的供应商的首要指导原则。

The Future

未来

The Chinese equipment leasing market has enjoyed a positive development over the last few years and will in all likelihood continue to do so. The global economic crisis will certainly not be without impact. However, low leasing penetration rates coupled with large equipment sales volumes are expected to continue to provide a good foundation for the future of the industry. Whilst the recently announced Government stimulus package in China will offer indirect assistance to the industry, the nature of the worldwide current economic crisis will nevertheless require close monitoring of certain business segments. The legal and taxation framework is not without complexity but there has been a positive development trend and this is expected to continue. To a large extent the development of true operating leases and other more complex products will depend on this regulatory framework.

中国设备租赁市场在经历了过去几年来的良好发展后，这一势头仍将持续。全球经济危机也不会没有影响。然而，伴随大量设备销售量情况下很低的租赁渗透率将为这一行业发展提供良好基础。政府最近宣布的经济刺激计划对这一行业发展会起到间接的辅助作用，当前经济危机的全球性特点也将会对一些特定行业产生更为密切的关注。法律和税务体制尽管不会变得越来越简单，但也显示出了良好的发展趋势。真正意义上的经营性租赁大发展以及其他一些更为复杂的产品将有赖于这一体制的调整。

Despite the high entry barriers and the comparatively small size, the equipment leasing industry in China has to the potential to develop strongly. The leasing market could grow into one of the largest in the world within a decade. Driven by a general increase of leasing penetration, new products and the development of different business models there remains a sizeable opportunity yet to be tapped.

不管高进入门槛还是较小的规模的条件限制，中国的设备租赁业仍具有巨大发展潜力。在10年内这一租赁市场将进入世界最大的行列。在租赁渗透率总体上升的驱动下，新产品和不同业务模式的发展面临巨大机遇。