Volkswagen Financial Services have successfully completed the first half-year of 2016 with an operating result of EUR 995 million (previous year: EUR 970 million; plus 2.6 percent). New contract acquisitions worldwide increased by 14.4 percent to almost 3.8 million. The overall level of current contracts also showed a significant rise of 9.5 percent compared to the same period last year and reached a figure of almost 17.4 million at the end of June. “The strong volume growth is reflected in a high-quality half-year result. We are very satisfied with our performance during the first half of the year and expect an operating result for the entire financial year 2016 at the level of the previous year,” says Lars Henner Santelmann, Chairman of the Management Board of Volkswagen Financial Services AG.
On the product side, maintenance and inspection contracts for new vehicles and guarantee insurance for used vehicles recorded a particularly positive performance. Overall, the service business has shown the strongest growth. The main drivers of this development are the trend towards mobility services and the measures resulting from the Trust Campaign. In addition, the international positioning of Volkswagen Financial Services also contributed to the dynamic growth. As a result, it was possible to overcompensate the market-related challenges in Brazil and Russia through particularly strong growth in, among other countries, China, England, Poland and Mexico. The German market also showed a positive development. “We have received an equally strong tailwind during the first half of this year from our close and good collaboration with the Volkswagen Group brands as we have from our attractive product portfolio and our international positioning,” says Dr. Christian Dahlheim, Chief Sales Officer of Volkswagen Financial Services AG.
New contracts
All product groups registered what has in part been very strong growth. The new contracts in the vehicle financing segment amounted to 1.2 million units during the first half-year (+5.5 percent). In addition, 658,000 new leasing contracts (+15.4 percent), 765,000 new service contracts (+42.7 percent) and 1.1 million new insurance contracts (+9.2 percent) were also signed within this period.
Contract portfolio
The contract portfolio of Volkswagen Financial Services at the end of the first half-year amounted to 17.39 million units (+9.5 percent). This figure comprised 6.30 million contracts for vehicle financing (+4.1 percent), 2.75 million leasing contracts (+12.4 percent) as well as 3.11 million service contracts (+23.9 percent) and 5.24 million insurance contracts (+7.3 percent).
Good performance in Germany
Volkswagen Financial Services also recorded increased growth during the first half-year in their highest-volume market. The total number of new contract acquisitions in Germany during this period was 1.24 million units (previous-year period: 1.11 million units). This represents an increase of 12.1 percent. As a result, the overall portfolio rose to 5.85 million contracts alone in Germany by the end of June 2016 (previous year: 5.46 million contracts), an increase of 7.1 percent.