The Leaseurope Index is a unique survey that tracks key performance indicators of a sample of 17 European lessors on a quarterly basis. The Segment Survey is an annual supplement to the quarterly Index, reporting on the financial ratios broken down by four asset types; equipment, real estate, passenger cars and commercial vehicles. This 2013 survey is the third edition of the project.

Both weighted average ratios and median ratios are reported. The weighted average ratios are useful as they take into account the size of the firms, so that bigger firms contribute more to the final value than smaller firms, but they can be heavily influenced by extremely positive or negative values (outliers). The median ratio reports the value of the mid-point or ‘typical’ firm and therefore is not influenced by these outliers. However, it does not take into account the firm size, merely the number of firms. Taking into account both of these ratios should give a better picture of the market trends.

Take a look at graphs showing the quarterly trends in 2013, followed by the annual trends from 2010 to 2013. The quarterly results are a lot more volatile than the annual figures, therefore the annual results are a more reliable indicator of changes in the relevant asset segment markets.