LeasePlan reported its financial results for the first half of 2013, stating that its net profit for the six-month period ending June 30, 2013, increased 38.9 percent over the same period in 2012. The company is managing more vehicles, 1.36 million during this period, up from 1.35 million at year-end 2012.

The company’s net profit was EUR 171 million for the first half of 2013 and total assets rose to EUR 20.1 billion. The increase was due to the company’s risk mitigation efforts in the countries it operates in along with improvements in certain European second-hand car markets for terminated lease vehicles.

The company also noted it is expanding globally. LeasePlan opened its operations in Russia for business in July and acquired the Italian fleet and vehicle leasing activities of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA), which added 20,000 vehicles to its LeasePlan Italy portfolio. LeasePlan added this will help it further expand into the Italian small and medium enterprise sector.

Looking ahead, LeasePlan is “cautiously optimistic” about the next six months despite market challenges, especially in Europe. The trend across competitive markets is leading to falling new-car sales and that market growth is “very tight” and absent in many markets, according to the company. The global recession is still a challenge and demand in many markets is slow, LeasePlan stated, adding that slowing new-car sales have led to an improvement in second-hand sales. The company added that year-on-year customer services indices are improving and that opportunities for growth will increase in the future.