At the annual press conference, Frank Witter, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, reported on behalf of Volkswagen AG on the results of the Volkswagen Financial Services business segment of the Volkswagen Group. Total assets of the business segment grew in the 2012 financial year by 14 percent to EU 111 billion. The operating result climbed 17.1 percent to EU 1.41 billion. “In the past financial year, the Volkswagen financial service companies have taken a big step toward achieving the objective of our WIR2018 strategy, namely to become the world’s leading automobile financial service provider,” said Frank Witter. “We are growing by offering attractive mobility services for expanding customer requirements and steadily developing the range of products on offer outside our home market, too.” Volkswagen Financial Services comprise alongside Volkswagen Financial Services AG with their associated companies the financial service companies which belong directly or indirectly to Volkswagen AG in the U.S., Canada, Argentina and Spain, but not the financial service activities of the Scania, MAN and Porsche brands or Porsche Holding Salzburg.
Portfolio of contracts grows further
In the 2012 financial year, Volkswagen Financial Services succeeded in boosting the total number of contracts in its portfolio by 16.9% to 9.64 million. Altogether 3.77 million new contracts were signed, representing an increase of 21%. The number of customer financings increased in the 2012 financial year and is now worldwide over 4.5 million, of which just under 1.8 million were new contracts. Leasing operations also posted substantial growth. The number of leasing agreements rose to over 1.8 million contracts, of which some 800,000 were new. Lending volume in dealer financing business came to EU 12.9 billion. The positive trend continued in Insurances and Service. In the 2012 financial year, the number of contracts rose by 21.9% to approximately 3.28 million.
Deposits: New record high
Customer deposits increased by almost 5 percent by the end of the year, reaching a new record high of just under EUR 25 billion. At 31 December 2012, the number of direct banking customers being served came to around 1.1 million. With its business segment Volkswagen Bank direct, Volkswagen Bank GmbH thus confirmed its position as one of the leading direct banks in Germany.
New mobility: Customer requirements covered across all rental periods
Volkswagen financial service providers see great potential in the deployment of new mobility strategies. Frank Witter emphasised the importance of a wide range of offers:”What distinguishes us is that we cover all customer requirements and thus the related rental periods. We offer leasing, long-term rentals, short-term rentals and micro-rentals – all under a single roof.” As examples he cited the car-sharing project “Quicar”, the recently acquired holding in the Dutch car-sharing market leader Collect Car B.V. (“Greenwheels”), Volkswagen New Mobility Services in China and Euromobil Autovermietung GmbH.
Outlook for 2013
The Volkswagen financial service providers assume that the global economy will continue to expand in the current year, with the strongest dynamics expected in the emerging markets, especially in Asia and Latin America. Growth in the big industrial countries will only be moderate over the mid-term. For Germany in particular, after strong growth of GNP in the past two years, only a very low growth rate is expected for the current year. Against this background, results in the current year should lie somewhere at the level of the last record year.