An innovative instrument for funding enterprises, which arose from within one of Italy's leading leasing companies. Established in 1965, from the outset Locat - Locazione Attrezzature S.p.A., was at the forefront in the financial leasing market. Indeed, it was one of Italy's first leasing companies and in many different ways its own story affected the development of this form of funding in Italy, which enables an entrepreneurial activity to be launched or extended without freezing capital that the company does not immediately have or can employ elsewhere. Established in a traditional industrial area, as was Turin in the 1960s, and soon present in Lombardy and through the Centre and North, the company provided businesses with funding also in periods of difficulty, at times helping to overcome the deficiencies of the traditional financial system. By joining Gruppo Credito Italiano and merging with other major leasing companies, focused both on industry (Isefi, linked to Olivetti) and banking (Rololeasing and Credit Leasing), in 1998 the Turin company became Locat S.p.A., the largest Italian company of the sector. Then came the merger with Findata, Quercia Leasing and, more recently with Capitalia L&F, opening the doors to a global market that the company's transformation into Unicredit Leasing (January 2009) and arrival in Europe have definitively confirmed.