Leasing of seagoing ships is one of the prospective directions for the development of the shipbuilding and ship repair industries. Leasing makes it possible to ship-owners to perform so long-needed retrofit of fishery and merchant fleet, since the majority of the fleet constructed under the Soviet Union is outdated. The equipment renewal requires grand financial injections. And despite the governmental support and special programmes, there is a lack of funds necessary for purchasing new ships. Leasing ensures fleet renewal on the most soft terms.

Basically, leasing is a complex of financial relations when the leasing company acquires a ship at its expense or on account of the borrowed capital and passes it to the lessee for use at a charge. The last makes profit by operating the vessel or equipment and upon the expiration of the leasing period obtains the property into ownership.

Russian companies still use the leasing under-intensively while the amounts of contracts grow. The state actively supports leasing relations. For example, in the February, 2009, the Ministry of Transportation was authorized to execute, on behalf of the Russian Federation, the rights of the shareholder of the State Transport Leasing Company (STLC) which is one of the largest Russian lessors for seagoing vessels. Around the same time, the Government of the Russian Federation expressed its intention to devote additional amount of RUR 2.1 bln. to the United Shipbuilding Corporation for the expansion of leasing. At that, RUR 1.8 bln. were allocated in the end of 2008.