86 BMW Group Report 2024 To Our Stakeholders Combined Management Report Group Financial Statements Responsibility Statement and Auditor’s Report Remuneration Report Other Information Financial Performance » At 31 December 2024, a total of 4,850,121 contracts for credit financing and vehicle leasing were in place (31 December 2023: 4,952,318 contracts; –2.1%). In the Americas region, the number of contracts managed by the Financial Services segment remained similar to the previous year (–0.2%). While the number of contracts went up slightly in Oceania (+6.4%) and Europe (+1.0%), a downward trend was observed in Africa (–5.3%) and particularly in Asia (–12.6%). The significant drop in the number of contracts in Asia can be attributed to the continued strong competition in the Chinese financial services sector and lower sales by the Automotive segment in China. « Contract portfolio of leased or financed vehicles in the Financial Services segment in 2024 (2023) in % by regions Slight increase in fleet business » Under the brand name Alphabet, the Financial Services seg- ment offers credit financing and leasing contracts, as well as re- lated services, mainly to commercial customers as part of its fleet management business. As at the end of the reporting period, the segment had contracts in place for a fleet of 741,935 vehicles (2023: 720,094 units; +3.0%). Alphabet has been responsible for the management and mar- keting of part of the Group’s own fleet since the second quarter 2024. The purpose of this move is to optimise the utilisation and remarketing of the vehicles involved. These volumes will be con- tinuously expanded as part of the transition to the direct sales model in Europe. At the end of the reporting period, the segment had a total of 21,152 vehicles under its management. « Dealership financing up significantly on previous year » The total business volume of dealership financing at 31 De- cember 2024 stood at € 21,273 million significantly up com- pared to the end of the previous financial year (2023: € 18,941 million; +12.3%). The main driver of this growth was the higher average financing volume per vehicle. « Financial Services segment profit before tax down on previous year » Profit before tax reported by the Financial Services segment for the financial year 2024 totalled € 2,538 million (2023: € 2,962 million; –14.3%) and was therefore significantly down on the previous year. The main reason for the decline in earnings was lower results achieved on the remarketing of lease returns. Earnings were also impacted in the fourth quarter 2024 due to additions to provisions for legal risks in the UK and higher ex- penses for credit risk provisioning, particularly as a result of the challenging nature of the Chinese automobile market. The credit loss ratio for the entire financing portfolio was 0.26% in 2024 (2023: 0.18%). Business volume in balance sheet terms stood at € 151,117 million and was therefore solidly higher than one year earlier (2023: € 137,910 million; +9.6%). « Slight decline in earnings performance of Financial Services segment » Return on equity for the Financial Services segment was lower than in the previous year, finishing at 15.1% for the reporting year (2023: 17.2%; –2.1 percentage points). The RoE for 2024 was within the adjusted forecast of between 15 and 18%. « THE OTHER ENTITIES SEGMENT AND ELIMINATIONS The profit before tax of the Other Entities segment amounted to € 837 million (2023: loss before tax of € 100 million). The main reason for the improvement was the lower negative impact of the remeasurement of interest rate hedging transactions compared to the previous year. At the level of profit/loss before tax, eliminations fell to a net neg- ative amount of € 146 million (2023: net positive amount of € 1,334 million). In comparison to the previous year, higher elim- inations in 2024 due to the increased level of new leasing and credit financing business had a negative impact on the profit/loss before tax. Europe 55.5 (53.8) America 24.5 (24.1) Asia 17.8 (19.9) Africa 1.2 (1.2) Oceania 1.0 (0.9)