Mercedes 2012 Annual Report Download - page 131

136
Daimler Buses assumes that it will be able to maintain its
globally leading position in its core markets for buses above 8
tons with innovative and high-quality new products. Not least
due to various major orders in advance of the soccer World Cup
in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016, we anticipate a rise
in unit sales in Brazil for the years 2013 and 2014. In Western
Europe we have launched excellent high-quality products:
the new Mercedes-Benz Citaro and the Setra 500, the new coach
generation. In order to realize further growth potential and
to enhance our competitiveness, we started the “GLOBE 2013”
growth and efficiency offensive in 2012.
With its “DFS 2020” strategy, Daimler Financial Services
aims to achieve further profitable growth in the coming years.
Key growth drivers are the expansion of our business in Asia,
the product offensives of the Daimler Group, and the further
development of innovative mobility service packages. World-
wide, we want to gain larger numbers of young customers, who
Daimler will increasingly attract with its new models in the
compact class and who are particularly open-minded with regard
to financing and leasing offers. For the new Mercedes-Benz
A-Class for example, we have designed packages including
financing, insurance and services specifically for these target
groups. Daimler Financial Services sees additional growth
opportunities in the field of innovative mobility services, where
we will systematically expand our service offering in the
coming years – with and beyond car2go.
On the basis of our assumptions concerning the development
of automotive markets and the divisions’ planning, we expect
the Daimler Group to achieve further growth in total unit sales
in the years 2013 and 2014.
Revenue and earnings
We assume that the Daimler Group’s revenue will continue grow-
ing in the years 2013 and 2014. Although uncertainty regarding
the future development of our markets tended to increase during
the year 2012, we will launch numerous new products in the
context of our growth strategy in the coming years. Furthermore,
we will increasingly develop the growth markets of Asia,
Eastern Europe and Latin America for our products – partially
also through local production. The growth we anticipate
will prob ably be driven by all divisions, with the biggest contri-
butions in absolute terms coming from Daimler Trucks and
Mercedes-Benz Cars. In regional terms, we assume that growth
rates will be above average in the emerging markets and
in North America.
The following factors are particularly important for the
earnings situation of the Daimler Group in the years 2013
and 2014:
– We will profit from the fact that we can convince our customers
also in difficult markets with a large number of new and
attractive products and with new technologies, and will thus
be able to grow in many cases faster than the overall market.
– Within the context of our growth strategy, we are expanding
our production capacities and distribution structures in
North America and Eastern Europe, and especially in the BRIC
countries. This will enable us to participate in the growth
of those markets, although it is connected with substantial
expenditure which will lead to corresponding revenue only
after a certain delay.
– The currently very high expenditure for our model offensive
and innovative technologies will only have a positive impact
on revenue after a time lag. In particular the new S-Class
and the new generation of the E-Class will not lead to a signifi-
cant earnings improvement until the second half of the
year 2013 and above all in the year 2014.
– By implementing our module strategies in the respective
divisions, we will be able to utilize economies of scale across
the entire product portfolio, thus making substantial savings
especially with regard to production material.
– In addition, we are implementing far-reaching efficiency-
enhancing programs in all divisions, whose effects will posi-
tively affect earnings already in 2013 and then above all
in the following years. With the programs “Fit for Leadership”
at Mercedes-Benz Cars, “Daimler Trucks #1” at Daimler
Trucks, “Performance Vans 2013” at Mercedes-Benz Vans
and “GLOBE 2013” at Daimler Buses, we intend to achieve
sustained improvement in earnings of approximately €4 billion
in total by the end of 2014. In this way, we are placing our
growth strategy on a sound financial base.
We assume that the weakness of major markets will at first
continue in the first half of 2013, and therefore anticipate
a weaker development of earnings in the first half of the year
compared with 2012. But due to the planned new models,
the assumptions made for the development of markets impor-
tant to Daimler and the increasing effects of the efficiency
measures that have been initiated, we expect earnings to improve
in the second half of 2013 compared with the level of the first
half. On the basis of the anticipated recovery in the second half
of the year, we currently assume that Group EBIT from ongoing
business in the year 2013 will reach the magnitude of the prior
year. For Mercedes-Benz Cars, full-year EBIT is expected
to be slightly lower than in 2012, while the other automotive
divisions should post higher earnings than in the prior year.
In 2014 and the following years, we expect an improvement
in oper ating profit for all automotive divisions and for the
Group. For Daimler Financial Services, we anticipate a stable
development of earnings in the next two years.