Esanda half the reach of GE

Vendor ANZ and an array of bidders will soon work through offers for Esanda, the bank's now unwanted equipment finance arm.

According to an East & Partners study (based on direct interviews in March 2015 with a structured sample of 1,297 enterprises with an annual turnover of A$1 million plus) Esanda was nominated as a primary equipment finance provider by seven per cent of micros and ten per cent of SMEs.

By contrast, GE (which is also for sale) represents one in four equipment finance relationships in the micro business segment and one in five in the SME segment.

GE has smaller presence in corporate and institutional segments that are still predominantly the preserve of the Big Four, said Martin Smith, head of markets analysis at East, in an email.

In terms of the overall market, half of all surveyed businesses use EF for cars (compared to a third using it for trucks). Financing for cars represents 12 per cent of equipment finance borrowing.