Porsche 2014 Annual Report Download - page 28

052 053 Annual Report Porsche AG 2014
buildings into central vehicle workshops. Already at the
end of the year, construction work was kicked o for a
new training centre. The new building, which will open in
2015, oers space for approximately 500 job entrants.
In addition to a training workshop, the building will have
classrooms and oces. The plant is being expanded
into large spaces acquired at the southwest end of the
existing space. These acquisitions have more than dou-
bled the plant’s area in the three years since 2011, from
284,000 to 614,000 square metres. The Company’s
general construction plan for the Zuenhausen plant calls
for investments totalling more than 1 billion euro.
LEIPZIG IS NOW A FULL-FLEDGED PLANT
At the beginning of the year under review, series produc-
tion of the sporty o-roader Macan commenced at the
Leipzig plant. The ocial opening ceremony took place
on 11 February 2014. Porsche has invested around
500 million euro to expand the location into a full-edged
plant with its own paint shop and body shell production
facility.
Porsche is building a new and innovative body shell
production facility in Leipzig for the next generation of its
Panamera model. Thus the model will be manufactured
in its entirety in Saxony beginning in 2016. In total, the
investments to expand the Leipzig plant so that it can
produce the Panamera going forward amount to another
500 million euro. The successor to the current Cayenne
model will be manufactured at Volkswagen’s Bratislava
plant from 2016 onward. The SUV’s body shell and a
large part of the components have been pre-assembled
there thus far. Final assembly has taken place thus far in
Leipzig.
WEISSACH RECEIVES HIGH-TECH FACILITIES
During the year under review, Porsche began operating
a new high-tech wind tunnel and opened a new design
studio at its development site in Weissach. Investments
to expand and renew the Weissach development site–
including for a new electronics integration centre, which
went into operation in the previous year – have amounted
to more than 150 million euro. In addition, a new drive-
train testing facility is also being built at the site. The
investments for this amount to approximately 95 million
euro.
CENTRAL SPARE PARTS WAREHOUSE
At Porsche’s central spare parts warehouse, located near
Sachsenheim in the Eichwald industrial park, a further
expansion went into operations at the end of nancial
year 2014. This meant that storage space has increased
from 113,000 to 170,000 square metres. More than
100,000 Porsche parts are stored here and supplied to
approximately 800 locations around the globe thanks to
state-of-the-art logistics technology. Porsche invested just
under 80 million euro to expand the Sachsenheim facility.
TWO BONDS ISSUED
During the year under review, Porsche Financial Services
Inc., domiciled in Atlanta, Georgia, issued two ABS bonds
in private placements in the United States for a total of
approximately USD 1.34 billion. Both placements were
given top ratings by the rating agencies and included
for the rst time customer contracts for Porsches as
well as contracts relating to Bentleys and Lamborghinis.
Investors included insurance companies, pension funds,
banks, asset management firms and companies.
Porsche Financial Services is an indirect wholly owned
subsidiary of PorscheAG.
FINANCIAL SERVICES ON A GROWTH PATH
The companies of the Porsche Financial Services (PFS)
Group partner with the Porsche retail organisation to
oer tailored nancial products and innovative nancial
services in 15 countries. Thus the Porsche Financial Ser-
vices Group has 211 employees in nearly every important
automotive market in which the Porsche Group is active.
In nancial year 2015, the PFS Group will continue its in-
ternational expansion and support Porsche’s own import-
er in South Korea by setting up a local nancial services
company. In addition to the core products of leasing and
nancing, the extensive product range includes insurance
products, the Porsche Card and dealer nancing. Under
the brand names Bentley Financial Services and Lam-
borghini Financial Services, exclusive nancial services
are oered in relation to the Group’s brands Bentley and
Lamborghini in Germany, Italy, Switzerland, France, the
United States and Canada. In addition, individual solutions
are developed for Bugatti customers. Demand for nan-
cial services remained strong in nancial year 2014, with
approximately 46,000 new agreements signed around
the world. The Financial Services companies exceeded
the 100,000 mark for the rst time and now manage
more than 103,000 nancing agreements with a volume
of more than 4 billion euro. In addition, more than 13,000
customers appreciate the comfort and exclusive services
oered by the Porsche Card and more than 17,000 cus-
tomers have taken advantage of the insurance oerings
of the Porsche Insurance Service. The companies of the
Porsche Financial Services Group have adapted their
processes and methods – including for risk manage-
ment – in their respective markets to ensure compliance
with the ever stricter statutory requirements imposed on
nancial services.
OUTLOOK
FORECAST FOR FURTHER GROWTH
The global economy may experience even stronger
growth in 2015 than it had in the year under review. The
emerging economies of Asia are likely to continue provid-
ing the momentum behind this growth. Economic growth
in China will remain at a high level. Economic growth
forecasts for the United States are also optimistic. By
contrast, the continuation of the recovery in Western
Europe depends on the resolution of structural problems.
Nevertheless, Germany is likely to experience solid eco-
nomic performance with stable growth rates similar to
the level recorded during the year under review. However,
expectations for Russia are highly pessimistic in light of
the conict between it and Ukraine.
PROSPECTS ON THE AUTOMOTIVE MARKETS
Overall, the global automobile market will continue to
grow in 2015. However, momentum is expected to slow
slightly in the key markets China and the United States
according to forecasts by the German Association of the
Automobile Industry (VDA). The Association expects the
German market to see slight growth at onepercent to
solid three-million new vehicle registrations.
ANTICIPATED DEVELOPMENTS
PorscheAG will endeavour to further increase new
vehicle deliveries and revenue in nancial year 2015 as
compared to the year under review 2014. This increase
will be driven primarily by the new Macan. Porsche’s fth
model was gradually introduced on the global markets
from April 2014 onwards and will be available for twelve
months of the year for the rst time in nancial year
2015. Although investments in vehicle projects and the
expansion and renewal of sites are high, continuous
productivity and process improvements and strict cost
management are intended to ensure that PorscheAG’s
high earnings objective continues to be achieved.
Business
Development