Good morning. This is the conference operator. Welcome and thank you for joining the ALD Q1 2023 results presentation. The speakers today will be Mr. Tim Albertsen, CEO, and Mr. Gilles Momper, as CFO. As a reminder, all participants are in listen-only mode. Should anyone need assistance during the conference call, they may signal an operator by pressing star and zero on their telephone. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Mr. Tim Albertsen. Please go ahead, sir.
Thank you. Yes, good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this ALD Q1 2023 trading update call. First of all, thank you for joining us. Secondly, sorry, my voice is not very good this morning, you have to bear with me. I will start with a few highlights of Q1, where ALD recorded an outstanding performance in many aspects. Gilles will comment on our strong financial results in more detail. Then we'll of course, as always, take your questions right after. Let's go directly to slide three. First, let's take a look at the events that shaped our Q1 . ALD had a very good start to the year, strong commercial and financial performances, as we'll be describing in a few minutes.
During the Q1 , we launched new initiatives to strengthen our leadership in sustainable mobility and further support EV penetration in all our markets. We'll hold our extraordinary general meeting on the 22nd of May to approve the acquisition of LeasePlan, which we expect to close on the same day. ALD will switch to regulatory status. We will launch the execution of our plan to integrate LeasePlan immediately after closing. We have completed the disposal of our activities in Russia. At the same time, we are expanding our international footprint through a new joint venture in Thailand together with Mitsubishi. With this partnership, which will be followed by others in the Southeast Asian region, we are accompanying our clients and will be able to capture the high growth potential of these markets. Let's move to slide five on our strong Q1 performance.
In line with our expectations, the new car market is normalizing gradually. Logistics chains remain quite disrupted and therefore delays in car supply persisted. Nevertheless, the production of new cars picked up strongly at the end of Q1. Against this backdrop, our funded fleet grew by 3.2% on a like-for-like basis, excluding the entities held for sale, Russia/Belarus, and the remedy entities in Portugal, Ireland, and Norway. ALD continued to benefit from the extremely favorable supply-demand situation in the used car markets. Our used car sales results per unit came in at EUR 2,535. Without the impact of the reduction in depreciation cost registered in 2022, it would actually have been at EUR 3,102, which means stable versus last year.
Finally, we achieved a tremendous financial performance with a net income of EUR 316 million, an increase of 22% compared to Q1 2022. Let's now go to slide six, where I'll comment on our new initiatives to strengthen our leadership in electrification. Thanks to the new initiative launched in Q1, ALD reinforced our competitive position in sustainable mobility and further promoted the transition to EVs. Through a new joint venture with our partner, ChargePoint, a leading electric vehicle charging network, we are creating a new EV charging business to accelerate the transition to electrification and generate new margins. We'll provide access to Europe's widest public charging network with 517,000 charging points, offering a cutting-edge app designed to address the evolving needs of our clients. To drivers, we will offer solutions to charge at home, in the office, and on the road.
To fleet managers, we'll provide a single monitoring dashboard to manage their carbon footprint, as well as manage their costs. This offering will be rolled out across Europe by the end of this year. We also signed a $400 million facility with the IFC in February, paving the way for further reduction in carbon emissions in transport by accelerating the adoption and penetration of green vehicles. ALD will help to put 15,000 green vehicles on the road in a number of emerging countries with the objective of reducing carbon emissions by more than 22,000 tons a year. Let's now go to slide seven on our robust commercial performance. In the context I described earlier, our funded fleet reached 1,432,300 vehicles, up by 3.2% versus Q1 2022 on a like-for-like basis.
Fleet management grew by a high 13.8% compared to March 2022, underpinned by a new strong banking partnership. With more than 1,800,000 vehicles, our total fleet was up by +5% compared to a year ago. Our order bank remained at a high level in Q1. We have recorded an outstanding performance in terms of electrification with our EV penetration reaching 29% in Q1 in Europe. We maintain our leading position, being months ahead of the market, with EV penetration only at 20% in Europe. I'm confident that ALD will continue to outperform the market as our clients' demand for electrification remains very strong, and EVs account for 1/3 of our order book today. Let me now hand over to Gilles, who will comment on our financial results in more detail.
Yeah, thank you, Tim. Good morning. I'll start with our margins on slide nine. Our total margins reached EUR 541 million, up 63% compared to last year. Of course, this is underpinned by this quarter, again, some exceptional elements. I will start with the depreciation adjustments, which is significant again this quarter. As you recall, we have started to stop amortizing most of our vehicles when their net book value are well below the expected used car prices. You remember that the initial adjustments have been made back in Q2 2022, since then, we had review our assumptions in Q2 2022 based on a more optimistic view on future used car prices.
This depreciation adjustment calculations recorded in Q1 is still based on our last fleet revaluation exercise that we performed in H2 2022, which is also assuming a softening of the car market within the next 12 months. This depreciation adjustment is leading us to recognize EUR 163 million of positive contribution to the Leasing contract margin in Q1. The other non-operating items amounted to a positive EUR 30 million this quarter on our Leasing contract margin, and this embeds two main item, a further EUR 18.5 million for hyperinflation in Turkey and an EUR 11.6 million positive fleet revaluation movement.
Last year in Q1, these non-operating items totaled a minus EUR 15 million, of which EUR 27 million, as you may remember, provisions for Ukraine at the time, and EUR 12.5 million of positive fleet revaluation. Excluding the impact of reduction in depreciation costs and these non-operating items, our total margins were stable when compared to Q1 last year. Compared to last year, again, our leasing margin was impacted by the delays in deliveries of new cars while interest rates were strongly increasing. The duration of our contracts have been extended until our clients got their new cars being delivered. The monthly billing to our customer remains based on the initial contract terms, but of course, we need to extend our funding based on new market interest rates, which have been increasing steadily during last year.
Conversely, of this negative impact on the Leasing contract margin, the longer we keep the vehicle, the better it is for the used car sales margins, as we keep charging our customer the contractual monthly depreciation charge. services margin were up 9% compared to last year, and this is really underpinned by the increase in our total contracts, which is 5% compared to last year, including fleet management contracts and flex products. Let's now move to slide 10 and have a look at the used car sales results. EUR 191 million in Q1 2023. The contribution from used car sales results remain at high level, reflecting the ongoing favorable supply-demand situation.
These results include the negative impact from the reduction in depreciation costs that we have recorded in 2022, and the impact amounts to a negative EUR 43 million this quarter. Without the reduction in depreciation costs in 2022, our used car sales results would have reached EUR 3,102 per unit in Q1 2023, and it would have been stable compared to the very high level achieved in Q3 and Q4 last year. We sold 75,000 cars in Q1 2023 compared to 69 last year, same quarter. The increase is mainly due to the improved dynamics in car deliveries, showing a slight improvement in delivery time.
With that, the total ALD gross operating income reached EUR 732 million this quarter, up 12% compared to last year. Let's go now on slide 11. Our operating expenses came in at EUR 260 million in Q1, and this amount includes integration costs of for EUR 38 million. Transaction costs in relation to the LeasePlan transaction, but also to the disposal of ALD Russia and the remedies entities for a total amount of EUR 12 million. There is also a scope effect of EUR 7 million as we integrated Banco Sabadell, Fleetpool, and Ford Fleet Management U.K. in the course of last year.
Our operating expense base is also impacted by the costs in relation to the upcoming change in regulatory status as we have completed the program to become a financial holding company, and we have put in place new teams to be able to comply with our new ECB requirements. The cost of risk remained at a low level at EUR 8.8 million, overall stable compared to last year, when we recorded EUR 7.9 million impairment charges on receivables. We registered this quarter an impairment on the net book value of our entities in Russia and Belarus for EUR 21 million in Q1, in addition to the EUR 51 million recorded in Q4 2022. The disposal of ALD Russia was completed in April, as we have received a clearance from the local Russian authorities.
The completion of the sale of ALD Russia in April will still have some impacts in ALD's Q2 consolidated income statement. Two main impacts, the impairment on the net book value of ALD Russia for an additional EUR 6 million, and the reclassification of the accumulated translation reserves into the income statement for EUR 72 million. This reclassification, of course, does not impact ALD shareholders' equity. The impairment of ALD Russia is a non-tax-deductible item, and of course, it has impacted our effective tax rate this quarter. This non-tax-deductible item, together with a higher tax rate in the U.K., lifted our effective tax rate to 28.4% compared to 26.2% in Q1 2022. With all these elements, our net income group share reached a strong EUR 360 million, up 22% and a strong performance compared to Q1 2022. This concludes our presentation. Thank you for listening. Tim and I are now ready to take any questions you may have.
Thank you. This is the conference operator. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. Anyone who wishes to ask a question may press star one on their touchtone telephone. To remove yourself from the question queue, please press star two. Please pick up the receiver when asking questions. Anyone who has a question may press star one at this time. The first question is from Horst Schneider with Bank of America. Please go ahead.
Good morning, thanks for taking my questions. It's Horst from Bank of America. The first question that I have is maybe a stupid one, therefore I apologize. I enjoyed basically explanations on the year-on-year changes. Maybe you can explain the changes in the lease contract margin and services margin quarter-on-quarter. I see that the services margin quarterly has the result has come down a little bit. I think in the lease contract margin, the reason why it's down sequentially is because there have been these changes in the reduction in depreciation costs, but correct me if I'm wrong. That would be my first question, after I go on with the second one.
Yeah, thank you. I guess on the, as I said, during the presentation, the Leasing contract margins, compared to last year, is impacted. I don't know whether you recall, Horst, we also did a rebalancing of our discounts back in 2021, between they were impacting mostly our services margin. Now, you know, there has been a rebalancing of these discounts in the Leasing contract margin. On top of that, as I explained, during the comment, what has impacted us is the fact that we had long delivery times of our cars, which, when the contracts are extended, of course, we need to continue to fund the car.
Mm-hmm.
The funding, the cars which are, which have terminated in Q1, 2023, have been originated back in 2019 or 2020.
Mm-hmm
At interest rates which were not the same. Of course, as I also said in my comments, this is all good, this is all fine from a used car sales standpoint. And this is what is driven the trend on the leasing contract margin. On the services margin, if you compare Q4 and Q1, in Q4, we had the consolidation of Banco Sabadell and Fleetpool, which makes the comparison with the last quarter a bit, yeah, not clear, of course.
Coming back to the point that you mentioned regarding interest costs, can you remind us maybe, what is now the interest cost increase, in percentage rate terms today versus a year ago? In other words, what have you got to pass on to the customer now versus a year ago?
I mean, we are. You can calculate the implicit interest rates when you look at our interest costs and the debt based on our December 2022. I mean, we've been impacted like any other banks or any other financial services on interest rates. The issue for us is more the delivery time. Usually we have two, three months. I mean, pre-COVID, we had two, three months of delivery time. Now, we've been living since more than one year with 12 months and more of delivery time, which is, one, difficult to put in place the right funding. But again-
Mm-hmm
Overall on P&L. This is all contributing nicely to the used car sales results. Again, we have been impacted like any others. We need to pass on these interest rates increase in our pricing. It's what we do. It's on the contracts which are terminating...
Mm-hmm.
Which is the most impactful, so to speak.
Mm-hmm.
Of course, three, four years ago, we could not have anticipated that the cars would still be on the road 12 months more.
Yeah. Okay. Got it. The other question that I have is basically coming back to an anecdote that I had recently with a carmaker. I don't want to mention the name of the carmaker here, but basically, we discussed the pricing of this carmaker versus Tesla. I was saying, "Well, your prices are higher than Tesla Model 3, Model Y. You need to lower the prices." The carmaker said to me, "No, no, Horst, that is not the case, because look at our lease rates. The leasing rate that we have is more attractive than compared to Tesla Model 3, Model Y." He said the reason for that is that they take more generous residual value assumptions. I think the problem is then transferred towards the back end of the lease contract. Nevertheless, in that context, I want to ask you, when I hear you speaking about higher EV penetration rates and associated residual value risks, how do you handle that? The second question is, what part of the funded fleet now is electric vehicles already?
Good. Thanks, Horst. Good question. I mean, I think it's a classic, you know, that you actually postpone the pain, you know, by putting high residuals in the market, you know? It's normally not a good practice in the long run, but...
Yeah.
I would say if you talk to the manufacturer again, you know, you probably should try to tell them that it's not the right way to do it. Anyhow, residual values on electric vehicles, for us is not a big issue, but a big theme that we spend a lot of time on. First of all, you know, I think we have said a few times, we have a particular task force working in our pricing department, to try, first of all, to understand the technological development, making sure we are pinpointing the best technology constantly to our customers.
I mean, you know, some years ago, it was autonomy, now it's more about how fast can you charge, you know, your batteries and of course, the, let's say, going from the driving experience, you know, to something. That's one part of it. Of course, we look very much on the supply and demand situation, where, I would say we know that used EVs will be, you know, in terms of numbers, very small in the coming, you know, three, four, five years still. Clearly a positive impact when we look at residual values for EVs on that particular part. Of course, we try to understand what will be the future price development of these cars be.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, for the time being, you know, the EVs we are selling, which is, you know, very small numbers, are performing very well. That's mainly because of the, let's say, supply and demand situation, I guess, and also the fact that, you know, the inflation on EVs have been quite significant. Overall, I would say we anticipate an EV market that obviously there will be a fast technological development, but at the same time, you know, there will be very few, you know, used EVs, which means that we believe that the residuals are pretty much at the level of where our ICE cars are today.
That's actually the level we have gotten to today, pretty much in terms of a percentage of residual value with EVs. Then I think what we have done, you know, we also talked about that in the previous quarters, we are developing very fast, you know, our Second Life Lease capacity because we know that some of these electric vehicles will potentially not be necessarily super fit for sale because the technology is maybe not the newest, but we know that the usage of that car is still very valid because, you know, you can take it to the city. You're still, you know, obviously, environmental friendly when you drive it, and the driver experience is good.
We believe that some of these cars, and probably quite a lot of these cars, have an option to go for a second round or third round of leasing. We know that the sustainability of the electric vehicles is much better than ICE cars. You know, it's a bit difficult to see an ICE car going 300,000, 400,000, 500,000 KM. That's not a problem, at least today with an EV from the experience we got.
Mm-hmm.
We see those cars much more minded for keeping them actually in our fleet six, seven, eight years perhaps. That's of course mitigating a lot the residual value risk we have on these cars.
Wow. What is the share of EVs in your funded fleet? I think you said it's very small, but could you put a number behind that or a rough number?
Horst, when we say EVs, we bundle full EVs and plug-in hybrid.
Mm-hmm.
Today, 13% of our funded fleet is EVs. EVs are full EVs and plug-in hybrids. I was actually in Q1 for the first time, the number of deliveries of full EVs is higher than plug-in hybrids. It's another thing I think that's also important to understand in terms of residual values and the pricing development. You know, there's a lot of subsidies in the market, you know, from different governments. We know that the manufacturers will be trying to get the price point downwards. As they do that, of course, the subsidies will, you know, start either disappearing or. Again, you know, the street price of an electric vehicle, you know, is somehow deemed to stay high. You know, even if the manufacturers can get the cost down from EUR 30,000 to EUR 25,000 due to the subsidies, you know, you will not see that effect in the market at the end of the day.
Mm-hmm.
That's also a part of our anticipation on that. For the first time, we are delivering more full EVs than plug-in hybrids actually in Q1 here.
When we look at the mix of the funded fleet on xEVs and basically more than 50% should be PHEV, just because corporate customers preferred also in the past more PHEVs probably. Is that correct assumption or?
Yeah, I think it's actually a bit more because, for a long time it was like 1/3 full EVs and 2/3 , plug-in hybrids. You're right. You know, plug-in hybrids have been a kind of a, you know, a technology that has bridged, you know, from an ICE car and the plug-in hybrids were also subsidized, you know, in many markets for quite [crosstalk] some time.
Yeah.
The governments have decided that a plug-in hybrid is not a green car at the end of the day, and they have removed those. That's also one of the reasons why people now go full EV rather than a plug-in hybrid.
Yeah. No, that's great. Get well soon, yeah? Thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks.
The next question is from Julien Onillon with Stifel. Please go ahead.
Yes. Good morning, everyone. My first question will come on the used car price and more specifically on your profits result by units sold that improved, well, not significantly too much, but as however, improved in Q1 compared to Q4, excluding, of course, the depreciation adjustment. What is the reason for this improvement? Is it a price increase in the market, or is it a mix effect specific to yourself? Is it there is any volumes effect? It is my first question what's the outlook you are seeing for the Q2 or eventually Q3? Second question will be on the on your disposal of your remedies. You have disclosed the value of the assets in your books in your annual results, in your annual report. Are you expecting, have you a price now in mind, and potential capital gain?
Okay. Thanks, Julien. Let me start by the first one then, Gilles will take you through the disposal countries. I think first of all, there is a seasonality when it comes to used cars. It's true that if you look at the last two years, it has been quite, you know, a specific environment. We have not necessarily seen the normal seasonality, but typically, Q4 is typically the worst let's say, quarter for selling used cars. A lot of the dealers do not wanna have a big, let's say, part of their cars on the balance sheet at year-end, and obviously people are not necessarily buying cars throughout the winter period. Q1, no, Q4 is typically the worst quarter. That's I think what we have seen.
You know, we are now back to a normal seasonality on the used car markets. Q4 down and Q1 up. Our best quarters are typically Q2, normally a good quarter as well in Q3. That's the normal seasonality, and that's what you have seen actually in the results here. For the rest of 2023, in terms of anticipation of the used car markets, you know, the, I mean, the high inflation we have seen still have an impact. In terms of the supply of used cars remains very low, actually, compared to pre-COVID. Hence we anticipate that the used car market will remain strong for 2023.
Whether it's above EUR 3,000, that's still a question mark, obviously we remain a very good result. I think just for information, EUR 3,000 of profit on a used car is absolutely exceptional. These are numbers that clearly we do not anticipate going forward in the longer term, we expect strong, a very strong market for 2023 and then of course, a normalization over the coming years.
Yeah. Regarding your second questions, I mean, just to go back to what we disclosed back in December 2022, the assets held for sale was more than EUR 1 billion. It includes not only our three remedy country. You remember on the remedies there is six countries, three for ALD, three for LeasePlan, but also ALD Russia. ALD Russia has been sold. The sale has been completed in Q2. The closing of the six remedy countries, I mean, we don't have a precise date in terms of closing, but we can expect that to happen Q2, Q3. We'll disclose more on the potential gains on those.
You expect still, you can expect a capital gain, however?
Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you. That was all my questions.
Thank you, Julien.
The next question is from Kiri Vijayarajah with HSBC. Please go ahead.
Yes, good morning, everyone. A couple of questions from my side. Firstly, it's questions on AT1. Could you just remind us how much you had in mind in terms of the AT1 in your future capital stack? I know the total capital ratio is 16%, but I don't think you really gave us a split between kind of AT1 and Tier 2 in that 400 basis points. I ask because of all the turmoil in the AT1 market, are you needing to maybe rethink the composition of that capital stack in any way? You know, maybe at least in the short term, have to run with a bit more CET1 than you originally planned. Also, just your thoughts on the AT1 side of things and kind of timings there.
Secondly, just coming back onto these costs related to the change in regulatory status. Could you just give us, maybe elaborate a bit on what, how much those are and just confirm that they sound like they're recurring. I guess the reason I'm kind of asking is, you know, you didn't really flag these additional costs when you announced the LeasePlan deal last year, or maybe I missed it. Two, I appreciate it's a bit late in the day now, but does it really make sense for you to have pushed for a banking license, given that it seems to have been a bit of a headache? It's added these extra costs. Sounds like it's delayed the closing of the LeasePlan deal.
In some ways, it also links to my first question, because, you know, if you didn't have the banking license, you wouldn't need to, you know, issue the AT1. Just your kind of thoughts that if you had the choice, I know you don't, but if you had the choice that you know, would you have preferred to stay with the old ALD non-bank model, versus what you're working towards now? Thank you.
Right. Thanks, Kiri. Let me start maybe on the last one, and Gilles will give you some more details on the cost levels for the regulatory stream, and also give you input on the AT1 situation. I mean, you're right. I mean, it's not really a, you know, we don't really have a choice, you know, whether we want to become a regulated entity or not. You're right. It is, it's a complicated process. I think we have done a really, really good job. You know, we started actually a project called Lily, you know, back in mid-2021, when we anticipated to be able to announce the deal because we knew we needed much more time to actually get ready for that.
I think we are today in a good place on that particular part. You know, it's a big exercise to become regulated directly by the ECB. We are there. I mean, when you look at this business after integration, obviously, there's some pluses definitely to becoming a regulated entity. First of all, you know, on our funding, you'll see that the ratings that we are having today will be improved quite substantially, which obviously will give us access to new funding pools and more competitive funding, you know. It's true that there is a cost to getting there. There's also a kind of modus operandi that changes the business as such, obviously, there is also pluses.
I then think, you know, in terms of the cost, and again, Gilles will give you a bit more details, but LeasePlan is already a regulated entity, so you know, it's regulated directly by the ECB. It means there is actually a cost inside LeasePlan who runs that regulation. Of course, you could say today we have double the cost because we have to take the cost to become one. Over time, and it's part of the synergies, obviously, we would anticipate that we can scale down, you know, and of course, not get to the double of the cost of or the let's say the cost of the two, but obviously having a plus there. I think it's important to state there is also some clear pluses. Again, when you look at the business and the size of the business going forward, it's, for us, it seems completely normal that we will be regulated as a bank. It will give us access as I said, to funding, in a very different manner than we have today. Gilles, you wanna.
Yeah. Regarding the costs, I mean, I'm sure he has been commenting them since the last since last year. These costs have been somehow embedded in the LeasePlan related costs, LeasePlan acquisitions related costs. We are in a specific situation just before the closing, as we are still two separate company, and we had to implement on our side, we had to prove to the ECB that we are at the level of being a regulated entity. Of course, you can see these costs as then to be part of the synergies with LeasePlan.
Of course, I mean, there has been a lot of work to be done, functional tests, technical tests to be able to report as a financial holding company, and this is what you see in our Q1, Q1 costs. These costs, again, you would expect, as we've always said, LeasePlan is a regulated entity, and we would expect some synergies from on the basis of the combination of these two of these two cost base. Regarding your more precise question on the AT1 and Tier 2, I mean, this has been disclosed in the URD, and especially when we disclosed our pro forma accounts. The amount remains at EUR 750 million for the AT1 to be issued and to be downstream by Société Générale to us.
Okay. That's very clear. Thanks, guys.
Thank you. Thanks, Kiri.
The next question is from Dominic Etheridge with Deutsche Bank. Please go ahead.
Hello. Thanks for taking the questions. Just three from myself, apologies, two of them are actually accounting questions. Firstly, just on the hyperinflation adjustment. I'm always surprised about how big it seems to be for just for Turkey. Can you just say if this is gonna be an ongoing effect, and is there an offset in the balance sheet for the sort of the credit that you have on the P&L? Then on the opening balance sheet of LeasePlan, I was just wondering in terms of how we should be thinking about that and the impact of obviously the high asset values at the moment on the vehicle side, I'm assuming everything will be fair value adjusted on the opening balance sheet.
Is that gonna be sort of an additional complication in terms of working out things like the depreciation on an ongoing basis? The last question was just on market share and how you're seeing the market currently, because I know in the past you've sort of maybe there's been a suggestion that people can get quite aggressive with high residual values and trying to reduce lease costs, particularly when interest rates are rising. Can you just say how you're seeing the market at the moment? Is it pretty rational out there? Is it getting more competitive or less competitive than you've seen in the last few years? Thank you very much.
Thanks, Dominic. No, it's, let me, let me start maybe with your last question here about the market share and the market in general. I think, I mean, we have been very reluctant, you know, to start looking at residuals in light of what has happened in 2021 and 2022 because we think it is exceptional. Having said that, we are starting seeing some of the competition too, that obviously is looking at that in a, in a bit of a different way. We are following obviously, this very closely, to ensure that we, that we are in the market at the right price.
Potentially, I would say one of the things that is changing a bit is the high inflation costs that obviously have happened, seems to be more sustainable than we would have anticipated as well. I mean, there is probably, you know, a situation where we will see inflation on new cars going forward, at least, you know, at a higher level than we've had in the last 20 years. We get definitely our fair share. If you look at our growth, you know, we said 3.2% on our funded fleet, but if you look at our corporate business, it's actually growing nicely above that number.
Whereas where we are struggling a bit, in brackets, is a bit on our partnership business with the manufacturers, where some of the manufacturing partnerships we have been quite hard hit, I would say, by the COVID crisis and have not had cars to the extent that we have. The SME business and the private lease business is less dynamic than it used to be. It's also a market obviously where we see that there's less customers in the dealerships for the time being. Simply consumers I think are looking what's going on, you know.
That have of course, a bit of an impact when you look at the growth on that particular part of our business where ALD have been typically very strong through our partnerships with the manufacturers and banks and insurance companies. I think we are definitely taking our fair share of the core business of ours in the corporate business. We definitely anticipate to keep that going when we actually do the integration with LeasePlan. The complementarity between ALD and LeasePlan in terms of our market reach is very good, you know. We will get a very strong foothold in every single segment, which again, should be helpful for growth going forward. Back to you.
Okay. Yeah, yeah. Indeed, good questions on Turkey. When you look at our accounts last year, and even when you look at LeasePlan accounts, they had also very strong positive impact from hyperinflation in Turkey. I guess we are just simply applying the IAS 29 when it relates to a higher hyperinflationary environment economy. It's strong numbers. It works like our depreciation adjustments. It's anticipation of future used car sales results. Even we could even take that into account when we calculate our underlying used car sales because in reality it's such a big number, I would agree, but it is the case. I mean, it's the only country where we operate, where we have this impact.
If you look at LeasePlan full year 2022 or our full year 2022, it's in the same range. The question as to whether it will continue will depend as to whether there will be a softening of the hyperinflation when you do the cumulative inflation rate for the three-year period. I can't really answer that question. Regarding your question on the opening balance sheet, you are right.
We will in the course of the next quarters, and just want to remind here that we have one year to complete the real calculation based on IFRS 3. We will fair value the assets of LeasePlan. We are completing to use our fleet evaluation exercise because, of course, one car, I mean, one car in the market needs to have the same value in LeasePlan and in ALD. Yes, it may, this has to be taken into account when you think about the coming opening balance sheet of LeasePlan.
Okay. Thank you very much for your answers. Thank you.
Thanks, Dominic.
The next question is from Matt Clark with Mediobanca. Please go ahead.
Good morning. Firstly, could I come back to the leasing contract margin and the impact of contract extensions you mentioned? Just so that I fully understand this, you're saying that when you extend the contracts, you have a higher financing cost, but a lower depreciation cost. In terms of the net impact of that on the leasing contract margin versus when it was still in the kind of normal lease period, is that, am I right to think that's negative on the leasing contract margin that you expect to make it up on the used car sales result over time? Firstly, have I got that right? If not, how does that work?
It's not a lower depreciation cost. In fact, we continue to charge, as I said, and we continue to charge to the customer the normal contractual, the initial contractual depreciation charge. I mean, you need to forget on one side, you need to forget the depreciation adjustments that we are calculating, which is another topic. Where you are completely right is that, in fact, it's what we call an informal contract extension. The client for those who are just renewing their cars with ALD, they are simply waiting for the next car to be delivered. Usually pre-COVID, as I commented in my speech, it was three, four months. Now we are on a 12-month period. As you know, we are always much funded.
When these cars have been put on the road back in 2019, 2020, we took a three or four-year loan, and it's of course not on a car by car basis. At some stage, this funding matures, but as the car is not renewed, we still have to finance the car. And we have, of course, since 2021, with increasing delivery time of cars, which are lasting now, we are in a situation where, indeed the, on the interest rates, we are, a portion is a bit unmatched. As I said also, the fact that we continue to charge the customer on the initial depreciation charge, because normally, the depreciation curve is flattening after a certain period.
All this contributes nicely to the used car sales results that we are going to do on this car when we are going to sell it. It's difficult to assess what is the portion. In our extremely strong used car sales performance, there is a bit of that. There is a bit of course, inflation on used car prices. There is a supply demand situation. There is a combination of many effects. Surely this one has also a positive effect.
Great [crosstalk] Understood.
Am I clear?
Yeah. No, that's very helpful. New business margins are holding up for the higher funding costs, right? That's...
On the new business, we of course, I mean, like any other leasing company, we are, I mean, we have to deal with higher funding costs and, based on which we apply a spread and which inflates, of course, the, our monthly leasing installments. Yep.
Okay. In terms of balance sheet growth, I think your sort of adjusted earning assets was growing 10% or so year-on-year at the full year stage. Is it reasonable to expect that that has continued year-to-date at a similar sort of pace and well, well ahead of your fleet growth?
Yeah. I mean, as long as, I mean, we are continuing the journey on the sustaining our customers in the powertrain shift, yes. That would be my anticipation.
Yeah. I think, Matthew, I think in that respect, in terms of electrification, you know, it's very much premium cars that goes into the fleet. I mean, it's Teslas and, you know, the premium part of the Mercedes and all that, which means it's very expensive cars compared to what we have been used to. Really, there is not necessarily a lot of, say, choice, you know, in the B segment and C segment. We know that in the coming years, the manufacturers have a large range of new, let's say, introductions in those segments, which eventually will mean that we will see that number, you know, stabilizing as well.
It's true, as long as, you know, the people change, you know, obviously, an ICE car that typically would cost EUR 25,000 to a Tesla that cost EUR 40,000, it has a dramatic impact, you know, on that. It's simply because there is not an alternative in the, in the cheaper end for the time being. We know it will be there, you know. The mix will become more, let's say, Reasonable in terms of risk-weighted assets as well, in terms of that, part.
Thanks. Then a quick final question. You say you'll update operational targets after the merger. Presumably, that doesn't mean the 23rd of May. Can you give us a bit more guidance? Would that be at the Q2 results, or can you be a bit more specific when we should expect that update?
Yeah. The anticipation is, you know, at the half-year results, basically. You know, we clearly, you know, need to make sure we have sufficient time, you know, to get everything organized, I guess, you know. The PPA exercise and other things will have an impact. Hence, probably H1 result is where we will give you some clear guidance for the rest of 2023, and potentially also for going forward.
Great. Thanks very much.
Thank you, Matthew.
The next question is from Reg Watson with ING. Please go ahead.
Morning all. Just a quick question, minor detail. Apologies if it's been stated somewhere. In your press release, you mentioned the closing on the 22nd of May, subject to receiving the remaining regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of standard conditions precedent. Could you give us more detail on what those remaining approvals are and what the standard conditions are that you need to satisfy still?
Yeah. That's a good question. Obviously, the reason why we had to postpone the closing last time. I mean, what we are waiting for is to have the European Commission's clearance on Crédit Agricole as the buyer of the six entities there is in the remedies basket. I would say at this point, you know, we are very comfortable about the fact that we should receive that next week. Hence, you know, we will be doing the closing on the 22nd of May. I mean, it's simply, you know, the European Commission needs to approve the buyer that we have brought forward. It's in progress and to our understanding, on a very positive trend.
Okay. And if it shouldn't come through in time, what's plan B in terms of timescale?
To be honest, at this point, we work on plan A, which is that we will get our approval, you know, next week. We don't have set a new date for that, in that sense, for what that [crosstalk] would mean.
Okay.
I mean, we are very confident [crosstalk].
Is it [crosstalk].
Go.
Yeah, I'm trying to get a feel because I've had situations with other companies recently where there have been delays in regulatory approval, and instead of delaying by one week or two weeks, you suddenly discover it's a five or six-week delay. Simply because the way the notification works, you can't run a rolling delay. You have to simply say.
Mm.
Okay, we've missed this deadline, but there is now another six-week potential deadline out there. I'm just wondering if that works the same for you.
I mean, you know, I mean, the fact is, you know, that obviously, as you saw last time, we anticipated to close the 28th of April, and we had to postpone, as you say, with four weeks. I think it's true that if there is another delay, you talk about four to five weeks again.
Okay. Okay, that's great. Thank you. Thanks, Tim.
To be, I mean, quite clear, you know, we are quite comfortable with the feedback we are getting. You know, we are of course in regular contact with the authorities and we are quite comfortable that we will make it on the 22nd.
Okay. I hope you do. Good luck.
Thank you. Thanks.
As a reminder, if you wish to register for a question, please press star and one on your telephone. Mr. Albertsson, there are no more questions registered at this time. The floor is back to you for your closing remarks.
Thank you. Well, thank you all for your attention and your questions. As always, our IR team is ready to answer any further questions you might have, so don't hesitate to get in touch with them. Thanks a lot for your attention, and have a good day.
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