ALD Automotive on its mobility expertise
- ALD Automotive says it is well positioned to capture a high share of the mobility market thanks to its position as a natural “car-owner” with a strong balance sheet capacity and fleet management expertise.
- Among its innovative solutions unveiled last year, ALD Automotive outlines the following:
- Deployment of a new driver application and a customer portal (‘My ALD’) to provide a central point of access to clients for all fleet related information;
- Development of in-house telematics platform (‘ALD profleet’) to be rolled out across the group in 2017;
- Car sharing solutions (‘ALD sharing’), allowing a company to have pool vehicles that can be booked by employees through a website – to be rolled out across the group in 2017;
- Rechargeable lease (‘Ricaricar’) allowing a customer to lease a car with a preset low monthly usage level and this can be recharged similar to a mobile phone card to add extra kilometre usage as required (Italy); and
- Flexible mobility budgets (‘ALD free’) allowing employees to allocate the use of the budget to different mobility needs.
LATE last week, French bank Societe General announced in its annual statement that it would float its ALD Automotive subsidiary on the stock market this year.
The bank intends to keep a majority share, but said the flotation would help accelerate ALD’s growth to become a leader in the mobility sector.
Currently ALD Automotive in the UK offers contract hire, contract purchase, financial lease, salary sacrifice, sales & leaseback, and for private individuals personal contract hire and personal contract purchase.
In particular, though, Societe Generale wants the floated ALD to take advantage of the rapid rise and substantial growth potential in personal contract hire to deliver its aim of being a global mobility solutions leader.
In 2016 ALD grew its leasing and fleet management fleet by 14% against Q4 2015 thanks to the integration of 66,000 vehicles following the acquisition of Parcours Group in early 2016.
And Societe Generale believes that ALD’s strong growth in recent years – number one in Europe; number three in the world (excluding captives and financial leasing companies) managing nearly 1.4 million vehicles; and number six in the UK – gives ALD the critical size and proven growth capacity to expand and exploit new opportunities through its stock market flotation.
Societe Generale said in its statement that it “considers ALD as a high added value business with substantial commercial and financial synergies within the Group.
“Its future growth, bolstered by the stock market floatation, will continue to create value for the Group.
“Societe Generale will retain control of ALD and continue to actively support its subsidiary’s growth strategy in the development of commercial relations.”
Chief financial officer at ALD Automotive International, Gilles Momper (below), explained to Car & Van Funding:
“The mobility environment is evolving rapidly with the emergence of new players, new solutions and breakthrough technologies.
“In light of these trends, ALD Automotive is positioning itself to be at the centre of the development of new mobility solutions. ALD Automotive’s focus is on flexibility in its product offering, in order to meet all the mobility requirements of the customer.
“ALD Automotive works in close cooperation with several technology partners (OEMs, IT start-ups, and so on) to provide even more innovative solutions locally to its customers, as for example the recent partnership in ride sharing with WayzUp in France.
“Today, ALD benefits from a critical size and a proven growth potential. The IPO will provide the company with new capabilities to accelerate its development through new distribution channels and partnerships in addition to the existing with leading car manufacturers and banks.”
