In a stunning reversal from last year’s strong
performance, BMW Financial Services, the consumer finance and
leasing division of prestige manufacturer BMW, reported a pre-tax
loss of €292 million (£270 million).
In 2007, the division made a pre-tax profit of
€743 million (£687 million).

The result was due to a “number of factors”, BMW said, including
a risk provision expense of €1.1 billion (£978 million) to cover
residual value risks and bad debts.

Without exceptional items the unit would have delivered a profit
before tax of €765 million (£708 million), giving a return on
equity of 19.1 percent, BMW added.

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New retail cotnracts rose by 3.1 percent in volume over the
course of 2008, to reach a total of €29.3 billion (£27.1
billion).

The proportion of BMW and MINI cars financed by BMW Financial
Services also rose, reaching 48.5 percent – up by 3.8 percentage
points year on year. “This increase was largely attributable to the
higher proportion of credit financing, while lease financing
remained fairly constant,” said BMW.