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FERRARI Australasia has linked with Macquarie Leasing Australia to set up a special financial services unit for the Italian sportscar specialist that becomes a vital piece of the business puzzle in its relationship with Ferrari owners.

The chief executive of Ferrari Australasia, Herbert Appleroth, told GoAutoNews Premium that having its own Ferrari-branded finance operation backed by Macquarie Leasing meant the company could maintain a closer relationship with its customers compared with the present system where finance sold through its dealers was often through companies that were owned by other OEMs.

He said: “That gave other brands access to our customers. Sometimes car brands own these financiers and these other car companies were getting access to our valuable Ferrari family members and that didn’t make any sense.”

And, in a move that takes the relationship between Ferrari and Macquarie Leasing beyond the normal white-label services for car importers wanting their own branded loans, Ferrari plans to extend the portfolio of offers to include funding of classic and collectible Ferraris and potentially the purchase of multi-million dollar Ferrari Formula One cars for its F1 Clienti activity.

Ferrari Australasia has also started test-marketing guaranteed buyback financing which gets its comfort from the very high resale values that Ferrari cars hold in the Australian market, said by the company to be the highest Ferrari resale values in the world. (See separate story)

Mr Appleroth said the desire to set up Ferrari Financial Services Australia was about “having 360-degree management of our customers”.

“They are part of our family so we want to make that last final step within the Ferrari family framework. So it is the last piece of the puzzle we are adding.”

Mr Appleroth said Ferrari dealers now had access to financial services that were specifically designed for Ferrari owners, not for the mass market.

He said loans would be treated very differently compared to normal financing.

“Ferrari is very different; particularly our residual values,” he said.

“The ability to back our own product with realistic residual values is an absolute key to our business and to our financial services because we pass those on to our clients with, for example, lower monthly instalments.

“So we will have a very tailored one-to-one relationship with our Ferrari customers which is unique in the market.

“Added to that, we have also been successful around the world financing products for our clients who are more interested in classic cars. So this is something that falls outside the normal realm of car financing and is more about personal financing through banks.”

For example, Mr Appleroth said that Ferrari Financial Services would be able to arrange finance approval in advance of its clients attending an auction of classic cars.

“We know the values of the Ferraris that are available and they tend to be a lot more than the price of a new Ferrari. So that is a unique service that we will be providing our clients.

“Of course, Macquarie has a very good understanding of the capacity of people and their wealth base so that is why Macquarie is an obviously perfect partner rather than a normal traditional bank,” he said.

“And then there are unique cars. It may be the financing of a Ferrari Formula One car to be part of Ferrari F1 Clienti. It could be the financing of a one-off Ferrari which could be several millions of Euros. The whole art of financing for the collector.

“That will be available within Australia under the Macquarie Leasing arrangement to complement similar programs that are run by Ferrari Financial Services in, for example, the United States or Europe.

“So they are the unique structures that we are offering to our clients.”

Mr Appleroth said that the core of the financing goals under the arrangement with Macquarie Leasing was to bring new buyers to the brand.

“That means clients who are stepping up from other brands. The people who are moving into our segment from lower price points are very used to financing and that means that we have to have programs and packages they are used to and they are comfortable with.

“And that is why the entry to the Ferrari world via the Ferrari Portofino and models like that are so important to have fantastic financing offerings for those clients,” he said.

Mr Appleroth said that each of the dealerships would have a dedicated expert in the finance field, and within the Ferrari Financial Services operation, there would be a dedicated team just looking after the Ferrari business.

“The executives at Ferrari Financial Services will create relationships direct with customers as they become more and more known to us,” he said.

Commenting on the arrangement, the head of Macquarie Leasing, Jon Moodie, said: “We look forward to supporting Ferrari Australasia’s customers by providing a range of flexible solutions to assist in meeting their finance requirements.”

By John Mellor

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