Daimler Financial Services increases contract volume in 2nd quarter of 2008

Daimler Financial Services increased its total contract volume by 4% to €60.4 billion in the second quarter of 2008. Compared with the prior year, 15 additional companies were fully consolidated for the first time, most of them in Asia and Eastern Europe. Adjusted for this effect and for exchange-rate effects, the increase was 8%. New business of €7.8 billion was 6% higher than in the second quarter of 2007.

EBIT of €183 million reported by Daimler Financial Services for the second quarter of 2008 was lower than the result for the prior-year period (Q2 2007: €220 million). The decrease in earnings was mainly due to higher cost of risk compared to the low levels of the prior-year quarter. Furthermore, there were higher expenses related to setting up the new financial services organization in the NAFTA region following the separation from Chrysler. There was a positive impact on earnings, however, from the increased contract volume.

Daimler Financial Services anticipates a moderate increase in its worldwide contract volume in full-year 2008. Despite the expenses connected with setting up its own financial services organization in North America, the division continues to assume that it will achieve a return on equity of at least 14% in the full year.