Ford saw group profits jump over 60% year-on-year in Q3, with its credit business also reporting significantly improved margins.
Although the group’s revenues from the automotive and financial services segments only grew 1%, to $36bn (£27bn), cuts in costs resulted in a net income of $1.5bn for the group, compared to $0.9m in Q3 of last year.
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Ford Credit’s global business also reported strong improvements, with pre-tax profits up 28% to $414m.
Revenue from operating leases went down slightly by $15m, but this was offset by a growth in retail and dealer financing, bringing overall net financing margins up 11% at $965m.
Ford Credit Europe (FCE) also reported a growth in pre-tax profits of over 20%, to £81m. Revenue increased 23% to £186m, while the loan book grew 12% to £16.1m.
FCE partially attributed the favourable results to the sale of its share in Forso, a joint credit venture with Credit Agricole, to parent Ford company. However, it added that contingency plans for Brexit had weighed on revenues.
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By GlobalDataEarlier this year, FCE applied for a banking licence in Germany.
Jim Hackett, chief executive officer of Ford, said: “This quarter demonstrates that our team’s focus on fitness is showing early promise. But we also know that we must accelerate that progress in the near term, while taking the necessary steps to fundamentally redesign our business operations to be more fit for the long term.”
Bob Shanks, chief financial officer, added: “This quarter, we achieved more balanced results, with improvements in growth, profitability and cash flow. Ford Credit also continues to perform well. Our solid results give us confidence to tighten our full-year adjusted EPS [earnings per share] guidance to the high end of the range, now at $1.75 to $1.85.”
Last week, Ford announced that its credit division would play an “increasingly significant role” in the company’s global strategy.
