10 Feb 22
News

ALD Posts Record financial results for 2021

ALD has released its annual financial results for 2021, which showed a record net income of €873.1 million, up by 71% on 2020’s results.

The year has also seen the leasing giant move ahead of expectations in terms of fleet electrification, which is anticipated to rise above 30% in 2022 within the company’s ‘MOVE 2025’ initiative.

Other points of note include a funded fleet increase of 4% (vs the end of December 2020) to a total of 1.427 million vehicles, an improvement in cost/income ratio at 48.8% and record used car sales results. ALD’s half-year results in 2021 showed better than expected improvements and that has continued throughout.

ALD financial results 2021 highlights

  • Total contracts stand at 1.726 million managed worldwide at the end of Dec 2021.
  • Used Car Sales result at €437.7 million, vs €61.1 million in 2020.
  • Earnings per share at €2.16.
  • Proposed dividend of €1.08 per share, corresponding to a payout ratio of 50%.
  • Return on Equity at 19.5% vs. 12.5% in 2020.
  • Total Equity/Total Assets ratio at 18.0% at Dec 2021 vs 16.7% in Dec 2020.

ALD’s outlook for 2022

ALD is in a strong position to take advantage of the industry’s positive growth fundamentals. The assumption is that economies will continue to recover, but supply chains may not return back to normal before the end of the year.

In the context of the project to acquire LeasePlan, ALD has begun to incur costs to comply with the required conditions to close the transaction, which will happen in Q4 2022. An Integration Management Office (IMO) will be set up in 2022.

Commenting on the results, Tim Albertsen, ALD CEO, stated: “Following a 2020 marked by the pandemic and sharp economic downturns, 2021 saw the rebound of economies, albeit still penalised by disruptions in supply chains. Against this backdrop, ALD continued to deliver on its Move 2025 roadmap, even reaching in advance its fleet electrification objective and improving the recognition of its ESG commitments. ALD’s results in 2021 are outstanding, reflecting strong fleet and margin growth, and buoyed by record Used Car Sales results. We expect the industry’s strong fundamentals to continue into 2022.

On 6 January 2022, ALD announced its project to acquire LeasePlan. This represents a step-change towards the creation of a leading global player in mobility. The combined entity, resulting from the two companies joining forces, would be best positioned to lead the transformation of the industry by leveraging on the mobility sector’s growth, offering the most innovative solutions to our clients as well as exciting development opportunities to our employees. This highly synergetic combination would also create significant value for the shareholders. Our teams are thrilled about these prospects and an Integration Management Office, which will combine the best talents of the two entities, will be set up soon, to finalise the plan for a successful integration of LeasePlan at the end of 2022.”

In terms of innovation, the ALD Flex offering increased its available fleet to 44,000 vehicles, a 32%-hike compared to the previous year, with a high utilisation rate of 80%.

Partnerships for 2021 and beyond

Successful partnerships were further developed, in particular with electric vehicle manufacturers with orders of Tesla cars multiplied by more than 3 times. ALD is the 1st leasing company for Tesla in Europe.

The company also successfully acquired German car subscription company Fleetpool in October 2021, plus a 17% share capital in MaaS startup Skipr.

Image: Tim Albertsen, ALD CEO, courtesy of ALD.

Authored by: Alison Pittaway