Continued Growth of Our Leasing
and Financing Companies
Gratifying growth rates were
Through the establishment of
achieved by our European leasing and
financing companies. Thus in Italy,
Mercedes-Benz Finanziaria — with its six
branch offices — further increased its
business volume, by 28 % to
DM 600 million. One in every four
commercial vehicles sold by our Italian
sales organization was financed through
our own finance company. In the Nether•
lands, changes in tax laws led to an
increased demand for commercial vehi•
Mercedes-Benz Finance Ltd., Milton
Keynes, at the beginning of 1990, we
created the conditions which will enable
us to offer to our customers in the
United Kingdom a comprehensive financ•
ing and leasing program for cars and
commercial vehicles in the future.
The managerial responsibilities of the
leasing and financing companies will be
taken over by the newly-formed Daimler-
Benz InterServices (debis) AG, effective
The dynamic growth of our leasing
and financing companies is largely due
to the fact that the finance package we
offer is consistently geared to the needs
of our customers and the marketplace.
Through joint efforts and close coopera•
tion between the leasing and financing
companies and the sales companies, we
were also able in 1989 — despite
increasing competition — to win over
new customers by means of of attractive cles, from which both the sales figures of July 1, 1990. In addition, it is our goal to
finance and service packages. In this
context, the service concept is gaining
more and more importance as com•
pared to mere product/price thinking.
Important elements of our service range
are quick credit approval, an
unbureaucratic handling of contracts
and, in addition, flexible and individual
service to our customers.
the sales organization and the new vehi•
cle business of Mercedes-Benz Leas•
ing profited; business volume more than
doubled in 1989 with the addition of new
contracts worth DM 170 million. Our
company in Switzerland, Mercedes-Benz
Credit AG, which is mainly active in the
extend, step by step, the activities of our
leasing and finance companies to cover
the products of AEG and DASA.
The growth of our leasing and finance
companies has led to further increases in
capital requirements. Seeking to keep
the capital deployed in the group on a
leasing area, and Mercedes-Benz Finance tight rein, we used the higher borrowing
in Belgium, were both able to substan•
tially increase their business volume. In
France, "Solovam", a joint venture com•
pany with Société Générale further
expanded its network of branches.
Particularly as a result of a concept
geared to greater customer proximity
it increased new vehicle business by
capability of these companies compared
with production and sales companies so
that again the capital requirements were
largely coverd by outside financing. We
made use of refinancing opportunities,
both locally as well as via international
money and capital markets, on first-class
conditions.
The new vehicle business of our leas•
ing and financing companies rose world•
wide by 22 % to DM 5.8 billion during
the year under review. Again, about two-
thirds of the business volume pertained
to passenger cars. Contracts on hand
increased by 36 % to DM 10.7 billion;
this figure represents 223,000 contracts.
The Mercedes-Benz Credit Corpora•
tion in the USA was again able to con•
tinue the strong growth rate of the
previous years. Despite difficult condi•
tions in the American marketplace, busi•
ness volume rose by 30 % to DM 5.2
billion, thus providing valuable support to
our US sales organization. The concur•
rent expansion of our leasing activities in
the commercial vehicle sector was due,
to a not inconsiderable extent, to advi•
sors who had been especially trained for
this purpose.
27 %. In Spain, we increased our
*
holding in the existing joint venture with
Banco Hispano Americano to 50 %.
Despite a difficult economic environment,
the two companies Merbefina and Mer-
beleasing were able to assert themselves
well in the Spanish marketplace.
Our business policy at home and
abroad in 1989 was again in conformity
with the "OECD Guidelines for Multina•
tional Companies".
The two companies Mercedes-Benz
Finanz GmbH and Mercedes-Benz Leas•
ing GmbH, doing business in the Federal
Republic of Germany under the joint
product name "Mercedes-Benz Lease
Finanz", were again able to achieve
above-average growth during the
reporting year. New leasing and financing
contracts involving some 35,000 vehi•
cles totaled DM 1.7 billion, of which
nearly 80 % pertained to cars. The busi•
ness volume for the group climbed from
DM 1.2 billion to DM 2.0 billion.
