DOSSIER
To externalise or not to externalise Stijn Blanckaert
Today, almost all OEMs offer leasing solutions to their customers. Some have integrated the leasing organisation into their company structure, others rely on external partners in so-called ‘white labels’. An overview.
OEMS DOING IT THEMSELVES A good example of OEMs taking matters into their own hands is Daimler. By analogy with BMW and Alphabet, it acquired formerly bank-owned leasing company Athlon and combined it with Daimler Fleet Management to offer international multibrand fleet leasing solutions. So when you lease through Athlon, you participate in the turnover of mother company Daimler, as you do for BMW Group when ordering a car at Alphabet. At FiatChryslerAutomobiles, FCA Bank Group owns Leasys, which is one of the top players in Italy and is now expanding throughout Europe offering full service leasing for private and professional customers. Maserati also works with Leasys. The Renault, Mitsubishi and Nissan alliance works with RCI Bank and Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Renault, present in 36 countries supporting the development of Groupe Renault companies (Renault, Renault Samsung Motors, Dacia)
WHY DO OEMS OFFER CAPTIVE LEASING? OEMs are interested in proposing their own leasing solutions not only to support sales, but also to push other leasing companies to offer interesting leasing prices for their brands. If the OEM's captive is competitively priced, which is mostly the case because of the sponsoring of residual values and operational aspects by the brand’s marketing means, the competitors will have no choice but to be competitive for these brands as well, because of the risk of losing customers to the captive if their prices are seen as too high. By owning multi-brand leasing companies such as Alphabet (BMW) and Athlon (Daimler), OEMs diversify their activities, have a way of positioning themselves in multi-brand fleets and even profit from the leasing contracts signed for other brands, adding to the profitability of their own leasing company.
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and Nissan group firms (Nissan, Infiniti, Datsun). European market leader Volkswagen (with Audi, Seat and Skoda) owns Volkswagen Financial Services, offering financing, leasing, insurance and fleet management worldwide. Though Volkswagen was formerly a majority shareholder of LeasePlan, that participation was sold in 2015 and the return has been invested in VW Financial Services. PSA Group, with Peugeot, Citroën and DS, owns Free2Move Lease, a leasing subsidiary offering captive B2B leasing solutions, and also has its own bank called Banque PSA Finance. For the moment, Opel and Vauxhall are not integrated into PSA’s Free2Move-offering. The two ex-GM brands have their own financial organisation, Opel Vauxhall Finance, a joint venture between BNP Paribas and Groupe PSA. OEMS PARTNERING WITH LEASING COMPANIES (WHITE LABEL) OEMs that do not want to go all the way in acquiring or setting up their own financing organisation can choose to work with leasing companies in white label-operations. That is the case at Ford, for example, where financial and full leasing are offered under the name ‘Ford Lease’, in cooperation with ALD Automotive. Kia is another brand that teams up with ALD. It also has partnerships with Arval. Jaguar Land Rover offers its financial services solutions in every European national sales company through external partners: FCA Bank for wholesale and retail and ALD Automotive for commercial and fleet customers. FLEET EUROPE #96