Nissan Financial Services Australia Celebrates First Anniversary

SYDNEY – October 15, 2009: Nissan Financial Services, the new financial services arm of Nissan Motor Co. (Australia) Pty Ltd., today celebrates its first birthday having posted impressive growth in its premier year.

A wholly owned subsidiary of automotive importer Nissan Australia, Nissan Financial Services (NFS) provides strategic support to the Nissan dealer network and competitive financial products and service to Nissan customers.

NFS, in only 12 months has grown its loan portfolio from zero to $250M and has secured funding to enable its growth to continue.

Nissan Financial Services, Executive Director, George Leondis, said the full-service operation has performed strongly despite the challenges of the credit crisis and tougher economic conditions during the past financial year.

“We have focused intensely on funding through the credit crisis but stuck to our core strategy of supporting and growing the Nissan brand. Our team has built a high level of trust with our key stakeholders including our dealer network, shareholders, bankers and customers,” Leondis said.

“Importantly, we supported our dealers with retail and wholesale finance while there was consternation in the market as some more established players deserted the auto finance sector.

“New product arrivals and plans for continued market expansion mean NFS will play a major role in Nissan’s development in Australia,” he said.

Nissan Australia sells around 60,000 vehicles annually and supports a retail network of nearly 200 dealers.

Globally, Nissan sold 3.77 million vehicles last financial year and, in alliance with its automotive partner Renault, is the third largest automaker in the world