Letter from the Management Board

Dear clients and business partnersof the Deutsche Leasing Group,

The financial year 2024/25 was shaped by an uncertain environment characterised by structural challenges. Companies in Germany and worldwide remained under considerable pressure to adapt. Geopolitical tensions, ongoing trade conflicts and subdued economic growth significantly dampened the economic climate. In Germany, stagnating growth, weak productivity gains, high location costs, excessive bureaucracy and intense competition – from China in particular – ramped up the transformation pressure for key industries.

In this environment of profound changes, it was clearer than ever that companies must rapidly adjust their business models and invest in key future fields in order to cope with this process of structural change. In this context, we remained true to our role as a financing partner and dependable transformation service provider: in the financial year 2024/25, the Deutsche Leasing Group continued to help the SME sector, the savings banks and their partners to adapt to changed market conditions and leverage fresh potential. It is precisely in this context of growing challenges that new opportunities present themselves. Together with the savings banks and our partners, we have deliberately enabled our customers to invest in key future fields and thus strengthen their long-term competitiveness.

At the same time, given their close ties to the real economy, leasing companies are unable to escape the overall economic trend. Yet despite a declining market and a noticeable reluctance to invest on the part of the SME sector, the Deutsche Leasing Group enjoyed a successful financial year overall. The development of new market segments and individual major projects made a considerable contribution to this.

Once again, we were able to maintain our position as market leader in Germany, consolidate our role as one of the leading leasing providers in Europe and thus establish the basis for further growth.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe for a long-standing, trusting partnership and for our successful working relationship. We would also like to express our heartfelt thanks to our customers and partners for their trust and close cooperation. Above all, we would like to thank our employees – through the exceptional commitment they have demonstrated in a challenging environment, they have made a decisive contribution to our success in the financial year 2024/25.
 

Stability and growth despite volatile conditions

In a volatile economic environment and despite the absence of economic recovery, the Deutsche Leasing Group ended the financial year 2024/25 with a solid result. Our broadly diversified market position once again played a key role in our resilience and success. We actively supported investments in key future fields and strengthened our position over the long term in fields such as energy, infrastructure and the rail sector. We also strengthened our partnerships, expanded market segments and systematically implemented strategic projects.

New business developed positively and increased by around 11 per cent, reaching a new record level. The volume of new business for the financial year 2024/25 amounted to EUR 11.4 billion (previous year: EUR 10.3 billion). Our acquisition of dealer purchase finance for leisure vehicles from S-Kreditpartner towards the end of the financial year 2023/24, several large-scale transactions – including an exceptionally large one in the transport sector – and the development of additional potential in the field of transformation financing all played a key role in the Deutsche Leasing Group’s growth.

The Deutsche Leasing Group also demonstrated its strength in terms of earnings. At EUR 207 million, its economic result reached a high level (previous year: EUR 216 million). The Group’s net asset value increased considerably to EUR 2.7 billion (previous year: EUR 2.5 billion). This reinforced the company’s economic fundamentals.
 
 

Growth in most segments; renewable energy projects particularly strong

The distribution of new business by asset class shows that Deutsche Leasing’s business segments were stable overall and generally did better than in the previous year.

Factoring business remained under pressure

Deutsche Factoring Bank (DFB) was unable to escape the weak economic trend. It achieved factoring turnover of EUR 16.7 billion in the calendar year 2025. This represented a decrease of 9 per cent year on year. DFB responded to this development by implementing a comprehensive package of measures in the second half of 2025, with a focus on stepping up its joint exploitation of the market with the savings banks in relation to new business, as well as initiatives to win back customers and encourage customer loyalty. DFB has thus been able to gain attractive new customers over the past few months and ensure existing customers’ long-term loyalty.

With its receivables financing and debt management products, DFB focuses on small and medium-sized enterprises and is Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe’s factoring centre of excellence.
 

BHI and BHS expanded business with existing customers

Bad Homburger Inkasso (BHI) and Bad Homburger Servicegesellschaft (BHS) had a solid financial year. They expanded their existing business in the financial year 2024/25, picked up new customers and took charge of more than half a million new cases. They are active on behalf of 1,406 clients in total, including 322 savings banks and other Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe members. These companies supervise a volume of receivables totalling approx. EUR 27.2 billion, with receivables purchasing accounting for a growing proportion of this.

As associated companies of the Deutsche Leasing Group, BHI and BHS offer a comprehensive range of debt solutions and the market-oriented resale of collateral (debt and collateral management). 
 

SKP continues business growth

In the context of reorganising the shareholder structure of S-Kreditpartner (SKP) within Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, Deutsche Leasing has increased its share in SKP to 40 per cent since the financial year 2024/25.

SKP’s stable growth phase continued in 2025. At the end of the calendar year, it passed the mark of EUR 5.5 billion for new business. This represents growth of 7 per cent year on year. This trend was supported by increased sales activities and more frequent dialogues.

SKP’s loan portfolios also continued to develop positively. As of 31 December 2025, its total loan portfolio was at EUR 12.0 billion, which is roughly 6 per cent higher than in the previous year.
 

Expansion of business base and transformation financing

We continued to consistently pursue our strategic projects in the financial year 2024/25 in response to the market’s needs and related opportunities, and driven by our
role as an active transformation service provider. On this basis, we are continuing to evolve and focusing on key growth areas, while also developing new potential in future fields such as security, defence and critical infrastructure as well as selected partnerships.

One example of this is the collaboration agreement we signed with NORD/LB in July 2025. Through this agreement, we have strengthened our partnership in leasing, hire-purchase and project business and are combining our product and problem-solving competence as part of a systematic market exploitation strategy through NORD/LB’s proximity to its customers.

In the financial year 2024/25, Deutsche Leasing strengthened its position in the field of green finance and as a significant energy transition player in Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. We have widened our growth path substantially in the renewable energy sector together with our subsidiary DAL Deutsche Anlagen-Leasing (DAL), and through a significantly stronger commitment and a solid market position, today renewable energy projects are part of the Deutsche Leasing Group’s core business. At the same time, we have successfully developed solutions in new-energy-generation fields such as battery storage and grid infrastructure and established these in the market. DAL’s activities in the energy corporates sector are a further example of how we are responding to the market’s needs in a market segment with considerable potential. Here, we are helping energy-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises and major companies to strengthen their energy supply through their own energy generation and storage solutions.

Supported by the equity increase provided by the savings banks and in-depth market expertise, together with the savings banks we have systematically developed sustainability as a key strategic future field. With an “excellent” rating from Sustainable Fitch for its sustainable finance framework, the Deutsche Leasing Group has strengthened its sustainable product and funding base and successfully implemented its first few transactions here. At the same time, a sustainable global loan from Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) has been taken out for the first time. This provides broad support for small and medium-sized companies during their sustainable transformation processes. We are also considerably strengthening our commitment here through the European Investment Fund guarantee agreements, which we signed in late December 2025 and early January 2026. These promote sustainable investment in almost every industry – above all agriculture, photovoltaics, commercial vehicles, construction and logistics. We have also made considerable progress with our own sustainability management activities. By setting up a Group-wide sustainability board and defining binding sustainability KPIs, we have established a central management and monitoring body. Moreover, at our Bad Homburg location, the construction of a parking level featuring electric charging infrastructure and a photovoltaic system is nearing completion.

The Deutsche Leasing Group further expanded its partnership with the savings banks in the past financial year, particularly in the context of transformation financing. The Group was involved in key Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe projects with a corporate customer focus. These include its “transformation financing” project, as part of which Deutsche Leasing has joined the sustainable financing framework of Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV). S-Transformationsleasing was developed on this basis. This offers the savings banks additional ways of supporting their corporate customers with investments in sustainable and forward-looking technologies. We will continue to systematically pursue our joint roadmap with the savings banks in the financial year 2025/26 for cutting-edge intragroup business with further digitalisation, so as to deliver even more success. This includes the expansion of our digital offering within the savings bank channel – in particular, via our “corporate customer portal” – and improvements to the customer contact and referrals processes. Moreover, by strategically opening up the security and defence market, we are deliberately expanding our market portfolio.

The Deutsche Leasing Group has made further progress in its digitalisation of partner and customer interfaces. Our roll-out of S-Mobilitätsportal followed on from the successful pilot in the financial year 2023/24. More than 200 savings banks have been connected to this portal for business and commercial customers, which has undergone technical and functional improvements. In the current financial year, we will continue to invest in the ongoing development of digital solutions and services – with a clear focus on our customers’ needs. As well as S-Mobilitätsportal, this includes the modernisation of the customer front-end systems in our Mobility business unit and the expansion of the DL service shop for the IT lifecycle process. In the financial year 2024/25, vent.io concentrated on integrating digital solutions even more strongly within Deutsche Leasing’s processes. It developed several AI-supported products and expanded its start-up portfolio through targeted investments in Voltfang, a provider of battery storage based on second-life batteries, and WeSort.AI, which develops AI supported sorting solutions for the recycling and waste management industry; this was supplemented by two follow-up investments in existing portfolio companies. In the financial year 2025/26, vent.io will remain our key development partner for software engineering, data science, AI and digital solutions at the customer and partner interfaces.

Deutsche Leasing also exploited market opportunities in its international business in the financial year 2024/25, despite geopolitical uncertainty. Deutsche Leasing advises and supports the SME sector in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (the “DACH” region) in relation to its direct investments in 23 countries. Within Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, Deutsche Leasing serves as a centre of excellence for asset finance and asset services in foreign markets. We see substantial potential here, including in the areas of ECA business, cross-selling and, in selected countries, the security and defence market. We are also continuing to expand our vendor base to other industries and sectors, including via local presences outside Germany. We are thus laying the foundations for a broader international portfolio and for additional growth in a dynamic market environment.
 

Long-term investment requirements reinforce market opportunities and enable new paths

The financial year 2025/26 will remain challenging for the Deutsche Leasing Group and our customers in equal measure. The economic recovery will only gradually gain momentum, while the market environment – especially for key industries in Germany – is continuing to undergo noticeable changes. The volume of insolvencies and restructuring has picked up considerably. To date, there is no sign of this easing in 2026. At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty and an increasingly difficult export situation are amplifying the transformation pressure.

The German business sector must rapidly modernise, define priorities and, in some cases, reposition itself. Companies remain under pressure to adjust their business models. Strategic and fundamental structural market changes are needed. This is also true in relation to the issue of a strong EU single market, which is rapidly gaining importance right now. Transformation pressure will provide the Deutsche Leasing Group with new and expanded market opportunities – after all, transformation requires financing.

In the financial year 2025/26, as the Deutsche Leasing Group, we will continue to aim for a result in line with the previous year’s level, profitable growth in our volume of new business – while outpacing the trend for the overall economy – together with moderate net asset value growth and an increase in our volume of equity. We will also have an eye on new market opportunities which could further strengthen our market position. We are the market leader in Germany and one of the leading leasing providers in Europe, and in an environment characterised by significant change we intend to maintain this position.

We are well placed to do so with a solid capital base, appropriate provisions, a broadly diversified portfolio structure and a strengthened market position which we have consistently expanded over the past few years. Rating agencies have recently once again confirmed our strong creditworthiness. Our broad funding base is a substantial factor in our leading market position.

In the financial year 2025/26, we will continue to rely on our high level of expertise, many years of experience and our trust-based relationships with our customers, the savings banks and our partners. In a challenging environment characterised by dynamic change, we want to boldly exploit opportunities and resolutely invest to safeguard our future viability – always with the goal of providing optimal support for companies. In this context, we will act responsibly and with a clear risk perspective, so as to balance growth with stability.

Together with the savings banks, we will continue to help companies invest to ensure their future viability, break new ground and secure sustainable growth. We are convinced that this requires close collaboration – at both the national and international level.

For a strong SME sector.
For the renewal of the German economy.
For long-term success in a rapidly changing environment.