Sumitomo Corporation and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) consider leasing as a strategic business and as such decided to jointly combine their leasing subsidiaries into Sumitomo Mitsui Finance & Leasing Co., Ltd. (SMFL). Sumitomo holds 40% of SMFL’s stocks and will support SMFL’s business expansion together with SMFG.
Based on a strict control system related to the market price of aircraft, Sumitomo is offering aircraft leasing services through Sumisho Aircraft Asset Management B.V., its aircraft lease subsidiary in the Netherlands, with the operating lease being central (comparatively short-term lease considering the life of aircraft) to the business of various airlines in the world. At present, Sumitomo owns and manages the leasing assets of about 60 aircraft consisting mainly of Boeing737s and Airbus 320s.
Sumitomo plans to expand its leasing business based on the know-how acquired through long experience in the aircraft leasing business and in aircraft management operations.
Mitsui & Co., Ltd. is operating railway transportation leasing businesses with value-added services that incorporate Mitsui’s unique capabilities and business experience in financial technology, logistics technology and information technology.
The services are customized to the needs of each client, including contract periods, maintenance, or other peripheral requirements, scheduling and other logistics-related functions such as the shipping and inventory planning of the goods being transported. In the US, where Mitsui first started this business in 1996, Mitsui Rail Capital LLC (USA) currently leases about 10,000 rail cars. In Europe, where Mitsui started its business in 2004, it leases about 200 locomotives in 11 countries through Mitsui Rail Capital Europe B.V. (the Netherlands) and MRCE Dispolok GmbH (Germany).
Mitsui also entered the Brazilian market in 2004 with the establishment of Mitsui Rail Capital Participacoes Ltda. (MRCLA) and is leasing freight cars there.
In addition to the freight cars, MRCLA also owns and leases rail transportation related asset such as intermodal terminals.
In the aviation sector, Mitsubishi Corporation(MC) established a new subsidiary MC Aviation Partners in August 2008 to integrate the aircraft leasing business previously developed directly by MC with related service businesses run by subsidiaries. MC Aviation Partners is now the largest specialist aircraft leasing company in Japan with assets of around ¥200 billion and a managed fleet of over 100 aircrafts.
MC plans to upgrade and expand its airline-related business globally and flexibly by offering a full line of one-stop services related to the marketing of aircraft and related equipment, and to operate the business at a superior level in terms of asset scale worldwide.
In the overseas lease business sector, as part of efforts to enter into leasing business in emerging markets, MC, together with Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance, holds equity stakes in AJIL Financial Services, a leading general leasing company in Saudi Arabia, and in Ekim Turizm Ticaret Vr Sanayi A.S., a leading Turkish fleet leasing company that operates under the brand name Intercity.
In the domestic fleet leasing sector, Mitsubishi Auto Leasing Holdings Corporation, a joint venture between MC and Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance, provides customers with various solutions to their needs, such as reducing operational cost, minimizing environmental pollution, etc.