ALD offers leasing and fleet management services to corporate customers but has recently expanded its financing to private individuals, with a focus on mobility financing.
“We’ve got a number of partnerships with digital players that we are looking to build on, and the nature of those relationships differs from player to player,” John Saffrett, ALD’s chief administrative officer, told Auto Finance News in April. “We offer services through an expanded partner network, and where we see opportunities to partner is rideshare and carshare.”
In April, ALD initiated two ventures, with Crédit du Nord and BlaBlaCar in France, providing a “strong basis” for the growth of ALD’s consumer leasing strategy.
The deal with Crédit du Nord has ALD making vehicle leases to the bank’s clients. Crédit du Nord is a network of eight regional banks, with a total of 880 bank branches and 2 million customers throughout France. ALD had already since 2014 been offering vehicle leases to Crédit du Nord’s commercial customers in 2014.
Separately, ALD entered into a pilot partnership with long-distance carpooling company BlaBlaCar. BlaBlaCar’s French “Ambassadors” — the platform’s most-active carpoolers — now have access to lower-priced leasing, warranty, and maintenance services through ALD.
Both the Crédit du Nord and BlaBlaCar initiatives are expected “to contribute strongly to ALD’s targeted volumes in the private lease segment,” according to the report.
ALD’s primary focus this year is to expand its “mobility portfolio across a number of our main geographies and establishing those products and services in those countries,” Saffrett told Auto Finance News.
ALD Automotive saw a 5.9% year-over-year rise in net margin on its leasing contracts to $140 million in the first quarter, according to the company’s earnings report. Also, the company ended the first quarter with a fleet of 1.41 million vehicles managed worldwide, up 14.3% from the same time last year. The fleet is expected to grow 8% in 2017.
