Mr. Sasawat Virapriya, KLeasing Executive Chairman, remarked upon the healthy growth of the Thai domestic car market, buoyed by brighter economic growth at home, and the launch of new car models through attractive sales promotional campaigns and marketing activities by various car manufacturers. Such factors have led to higher new car sales, as reflected in the growth of auto hire purchase during 1H18 by 12.4 percent, over-year. KLeasing's total loans during the first half of this year reached 49.17 billion Baht, comprising new hire purchase, leasing and car registration loans of 19.98 billion Baht, rising 7 percent YoY, and dealer floorplan loans of 29.19 billion Baht, rising 32 percent YoY. With outstanding loans growing 8 percent YoY to 100.12 billion Baht, and NPLs of 1.42 percent, KLeasing's profit surged 18.5 percent YoY, to 683 million Baht.
For the final quarter of 2018, KLeasing will join forces with its car dealer partners in offering products that continue to meet the needs of our customers, as well as introducing a new K- Auto Finance (New Car) campaign during the Thailand International Motor Expo, scheduled for the end of 2018. We have also mapped out plans to increase the efficiency of our risk management so as to expand the quality loan base while fully focusing on marketing our K-Auto Finance (Refinance) via KBank branches nationwide and digital platform. Given this, KLeasing will likely be ready to accommodate the rapidly growing number of our customers in an efficient manner, as well as assisting them in conducting all transactions related to auto financing with ease. These coupled with KLeasing's capacity in precisely analyzing customer behavior through Data Analytics will enable us to offer auto-finance via online channels to the right customers.
Mr. Sasawat added that with those plans, KLeasing is upbeat of meeting the set loan target for 2018, comprising 44.2 billion Baht in both K-Auto Finance (New Car) and K-Auto Finance (Refinance), 45.8 billion Baht in K-Auto Finance (Dealer Floorplan) while new loans and outstanding loans will likely reach 90.0 billion Baht and 105.5 billion Baht, respectively. The auto hire-purchase business overall is projected to grow about 8.5 percent in 2018.
With regard to the outlook for 2019, KResearch estimates that domestic car sales will be approaching an equilibrium level, at around 940,000-970,000 units. Eco-cars and various models of multipurpose vehicles are expected to enjoy good growth next year. Overall, the growth rate of auto hire purchase business is expected to decelerate to 4.5-6.5 percent.
Regarding the Finance Ministry's plan to set a framework for issuing license for auto refinancing in the similar fashion to other financial services, he said that the plan should not affect the overall business sentiment because the main players of this business are commercial banks. The measure will instead provide a reliable option for retail customers, especially those residing upcountry to use legal and fair financial service under supervision of the government's regulatory agencies.