每每向投资者报告利润时,大众汽车(Volkswagen)依靠其重量级的传统高端品牌奥迪(Audi)和保时捷(Porsche),一次又一次地实现巨额盈利。
但是现如今,这些高端品牌面临着来自“最不可能的竞争者”的威胁——大众自己的专属融资业务(Volkswagen Financial Services,以下简称VWFS)。
由于全球半导体短缺,新车库存减少,消费者不得不前往二手车经销商处购买新车。VWFS这家发展稳定但并不引人注目的大众子公司,正通过在过热的市场上出售、租赁二手车来摆脱困境。
并非所有的汽车制造商都有自己的融资部门。融资业务需要可靠的信用评级,以便能够不断地向债务市场寻求新的资金。一些人会选择与更传统的专业机构合作,比如隶属于同名西班牙银行的汽车贷款提供商——桑坦德消费美国分公司(Santander Consumer USA)。但是,无论是德国的宝马(BMW)还是美国的福特(Ford),这些公司都像大众一样,取得了创纪录的业绩。
VWFS首席执行官拉尔斯•亨纳•桑特尔曼在一份声明中表示:“我们在2021年上半年的收入,超过了2016年全年的收入。”他预测,今年VWFS的利润将创历史新高,至40亿欧元(愈合47亿美元)。如果达到这一水平,这一利润将相当于大众集团2019年新冠疫情爆发前营业利润的20%以上。
这种利润水平,通常只有大众高端品牌组合才能达到。生产途观(Tiguan)SUV和捷达(Jetta)轿车等普通大众车型在2019年赚得创纪录的38亿欧元时,没有达到这一利润水平;大众最大的利润来源保时捷,在其业绩最好的一年也仅贡献了42亿欧元。
8月4日公布的数据显示,7月份德国新车市场同比暴跌25%。业内人士表示,由于订单仍满,这一降幅表明在芯片短缺的情况下,支撑着销售的剩余新车库存基本上已被清理干净。
这与雷诺(Renault)和达契亚(Dacia)的法国母公司最近发布的集团数据相呼应。自疫情爆发以来,雷诺和达契亚的库存一直在稳步下降。
尽管半导体行业存在瓶颈,但是,所有德国汽车制造商公布的第二季度业绩都表现强劲,并在二手车业务的帮助下,都至少一次上调了今年的年度业绩预期。宝马于8月3日公布了其自有专属融资部门上半年利润,同样破了纪录;而戴姆勒(Daimler)今年已两次上调了对其租赁和贷款业务的预期。
并且,大众并不认为公司二手车业务的繁荣是“新冠时代的侥幸”。其认为,一旦半导体芯片供应正常,这种繁荣就会正常化。
大众的目标是通过套利消除欧洲各国的低效率,在一个国家追踪二手车,并在另一个国家以获得更高的回报出售。在过去,一旦某辆汽车被出售,大众就不会再知道它最终会被卖到哪里——现在,大众打算借助新的全集团IT平台来改变这一点。平台可以帮助收集其汽车销售的数据,类似于特斯拉(Tesla)之前的做法。
VWFS财务总监弗兰克•费德勒表示:“我们的目标是确保VWFS在未来几年也能保持这一历史性的收入水平。”(财富中文网)
编译:杨二一
每每向投资者报告利润时,大众汽车(Volkswagen)依靠其重量级的传统高端品牌奥迪(Audi)和保时捷(Porsche),一次又一次地实现巨额盈利。
但是现如今,这些高端品牌面临着来自“最不可能的竞争者”的威胁——大众自己的专属融资业务(Volkswagen Financial Services,以下简称VWFS)。
由于全球半导体短缺,新车库存减少,消费者不得不前往二手车经销商处购买新车。VWFS这家发展稳定但并不引人注目的大众子公司,正通过在过热的市场上出售、租赁二手车来摆脱困境。
并非所有的汽车制造商都有自己的融资部门。融资业务需要可靠的信用评级,以便能够不断地向债务市场寻求新的资金。一些人会选择与更传统的专业机构合作,比如隶属于同名西班牙银行的汽车贷款提供商——桑坦德消费美国分公司(Santander Consumer USA)。但是,无论是德国的宝马(BMW)还是美国的福特(Ford),这些公司都像大众一样,取得了创纪录的业绩。
VWFS首席执行官拉尔斯•亨纳•桑特尔曼在一份声明中表示:“我们在2021年上半年的收入,超过了2016年全年的收入。”他预测,今年VWFS的利润将创历史新高,至40亿欧元(愈合47亿美元)。如果达到这一水平,这一利润将相当于大众集团2019年新冠疫情爆发前营业利润的20%以上。
这种利润水平,通常只有大众高端品牌组合才能达到。生产途观(Tiguan)SUV和捷达(Jetta)轿车等普通大众车型在2019年赚得创纪录的38亿欧元时,没有达到这一利润水平;大众最大的利润来源保时捷,在其业绩最好的一年也仅贡献了42亿欧元。
8月4日公布的数据显示,7月份德国新车市场同比暴跌25%。业内人士表示,由于订单仍满,这一降幅表明在芯片短缺的情况下,支撑着销售的剩余新车库存基本上已被清理干净。
这与雷诺(Renault)和达契亚(Dacia)的法国母公司最近发布的集团数据相呼应。自疫情爆发以来,雷诺和达契亚的库存一直在稳步下降。
尽管半导体行业存在瓶颈,但是,所有德国汽车制造商公布的第二季度业绩都表现强劲,并在二手车业务的帮助下,都至少一次上调了今年的年度业绩预期。宝马于8月3日公布了其自有专属融资部门上半年利润,同样破了纪录;而戴姆勒(Daimler)今年已两次上调了对其租赁和贷款业务的预期。
并且,大众并不认为公司二手车业务的繁荣是“新冠时代的侥幸”。其认为,一旦半导体芯片供应正常,这种繁荣就会正常化。
大众的目标是通过套利消除欧洲各国的低效率,在一个国家追踪二手车,并在另一个国家以获得更高的回报出售。在过去,一旦某辆汽车被出售,大众就不会再知道它最终会被卖到哪里——现在,大众打算借助新的全集团IT平台来改变这一点。平台可以帮助收集其汽车销售的数据,类似于特斯拉(Tesla)之前的做法。
VWFS财务总监弗兰克•费德勒表示:“我们的目标是确保VWFS在未来几年也能保持这一历史性的收入水平。”(财富中文网)
编译:杨二一
When it comes time to report profits to investors, Volkswagen traditionally relies on its heavy-hitting premium brands Audi and Porsche to haul in the big money time and again.
Yet they now have competition from the unlikeliest of candidates: the group’s own captive financing business, VWFS.
Thanks to a global semiconductor shortage that has depleted stocks of new vehicles and forced consumers to scour used car dealerships for a new ride, the stable but otherwise unspectacular VW subsidiary is cleaning up by selling (or leasing) pre-owned models in a superheated market.
Not all carmakers operate their own financing units: The business requires solid credit ratings in order to afford the constant trips to debt markets for fresh funding. Some have opted to partner with more traditional specialists like Santander Consumer USA, an auto loan provider belonging to the eponymous Spanish bank. But those that do, whether BMW in Germany or Ford in the U.S., have enjoyed record results at these businesses, just like Volkswagen.
“We’ve earned more in the first half of 2021 than in the whole of 2016,” said VWFS chief executive Lars Henner Santelmann in a statement, forecasting record profits of €4 billion ($4.7 billion) this year. If it hits that mark, such a bottom-line haul would be equivalent to more than 20% of the VW group's 2019 pre-COVID operating profit.
That kind of coin is typically earned only by the group’s lofty premium brand duo. The Volkswagen brand—which builds models such as the Tiguan SUV and Jetta sedan—could not match this level when it earned a record €3.8 billion in 2019. Porsche, the big margin generator in the VW group, contributed only €4.2 billion in its best year.
Data published on Wednesday revealed a 25% year-on-year plunge in Germany’s new car market in July. With order books still full, industry insiders said the declines suggest remaining inventories of new cars that helped buttress sales amid the chip shortage have largely been picked clean.
This echoes recent group-wide data from the French parent of Renault and Dacia, whose stocks have steadily declined since the start of the pandemic.
Despite bottlenecks in semiconductors, all German carmakers have presented robust second-quarter results and raised their annual guidance at least once this year with increasing help from their used car business. BMW reported on Tuesday record first-half profit at its own captive financing unit, while Daimler hiked its forecasts for its leasing and loan business for the second time this year.
Volkswagen nevertheless doesn’t see its used car bonanza as a fluke of the COVID era, one that would normalize once there's a healthy supply of semiconductor chips.
It aims to eliminate inefficiencies across European borders with the help of arbitrage, tracking down used cars in one country and selling them for a higher return in another. Once a Volkswagen had been sold in the past, the manufacturer had no idea where it would end up—something the company aims to change with the help of new group-wide IT platforms that can help gather data on its fleets, like Tesla before it.
"Our ambition is to ensure that this historic level of earnings at Volkswagen Financial Services is maintained over the next few years as well,” said Frank Fiedler, the division’s finance chief.