The equipment finance industry appears set for growth in 2025 after a pause that set it back following the collapse of several regional banks in March 2023.
Alta Group co-Chief Executive Valerie Gerard and other company executives expressed optimism for the future in a recent interview with Equipment Finance News.
“We’re coming off a really rough 18-month patch where you had the bank failures at Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and that caused a liquidity crisis that’s put the industry on pause, if not in a backward step or two,” she said. “There are a lot of signs that seem to suggest that it’s going to be a good year for us.”
Gerard listed climate finance and financing, data centers and equipment as a service as examples of potential growth catalysts, saying they “will certainly bolster the industry.”
Equipment finance uncertainty risks
However, that positive forecast for the year comes with uncertainty, especially after the last few years, said Rick Remiker, vice chairman of the Alta Group’s global consultancy.
“It’s a net positive outlook for 2025, but certainly with a high degree of uncertainty,” he said. “Just think what happened six or seven weeks [after January 2023] with the collapse of several regional banks that created a completely different industry dynamic for the next year and a half or two years.”
This potential for uncertainty after the past 18 months or so also permeates the equipment finance M&A space, although it, too, has a positive outlook, said Jim Jackson, co-chief executive officer at Alta Group and leader of its merger and acquisition advisory practice.
“The last couple of years, in terms of M&A activity, things have been quiet in the industry” he said. “In 2025, we’re pretty well suited from an economic standpoint, to have a pretty strong M&A market this year.
The M&A market does not like uncertainty, and while things like interest rates remain uncertain, many other parts of the economy became certain following the 2024 election, Jackson said.
Gerard, Jackson and Remiker joined EFN to discuss the Alta Group’s 2025 Insights report released on Jan 14.
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