The FINANCIAL — For the first time in its history, Daimler Financial Services (via financial and mobility service providers e.g. Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, car2go, mytaxi and moovel) has been able to increase its six-month earnings to more than one billion Euro.
With global growth in new business by 19% to €34.7 billion compared to the previous year (mid-year 2017 vs. mid-year 2016), the EBIT was €1,046 billion (+15%). “We finance every second vehicle from the Daimler Group worldwide. With nearly one million new contracts in the first six months, we are heading for another record year. This is primarily due to the continued good sales performance in the automotive divisions, in particular Mercedes-Benz Cars,” said Klaus Entenmann, CEO of Daimler Financial Services AG, according to Daimler.
Portfolio increases by 17%
The portfolio of globally financed and leased vehicles increased by 17% to 4.6 million units (3.9 million in Q2/2016), which corresponds to a volume of around €134 billion. Daimler Financial Services is expecting a significant increase in new business for 2017 as well as further growth in the contract volume. The increase in earnings is primarily due to the increased contract volume with a further improvement in the risk costs situation. The increased interest rate level had a counteracting effect.
14.5 million customers: Mobility Services grow by 116%
In addition, the company was able to more than double the number of customers around the world who use the digital mobility services such as car2go (global market leader in free-floating carsharing), mytaxi (market leader in Europe) or moovel. The services are used by 14.5 million customers (+116% compared to the previous year). Klaus Entenmann: “We are thus further expanding our position as market leader in the field of mobility services. We have the financial resources that are required for this growth path.” Contributing factors in this regard have included the acquisition of Clever Taxi (Romania) and Taxibeat (Greece/Peru). This makes mytaxi the number one among providers of taxi apps in Europe with 8.2 million customers. car2go is also increasing its number of customers worldwide and with 2.6 million users is the market leader in the carsharing segment. moovel, the operating system for mobility at Daimler, sells a ticket every second and boasts 2.9 million customers across locations in Europe and North America.
