Peugeot Q3 sales up 12 pct, lifted by car sales; confirms H2 margin goal UPDATE

Peugeot Q3 sales up 12 pct, lifted by car sales; confirms H2 margin goal UPDATE

	Published : Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:37 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Adding detail on car volumes, sales for other activities)

PARIS (Thomson Financial) - Peugeot SA said its third-quarter sales rose 11.9 pct year-on-year, supported by strong car sales, and confirmed its guidance for a second-half operating margin of above 2 pct.

The group's third-quarter sales increased to 14.024 bln eur from 12.538 bln a year earlier.

Among brokers, Morgan Stanley had forecast sales of 12.926 bln eur and

Exane BNP Paribas had predicted 13.033 bln eur.

Peugeot said quarterly new-car sales rose 14.4 pct, citing a combination of higher volumes, pricing and product mix.

Total auto sales were 10.964 bln eur, up 12.2 pct from a year ago.

Volume sales increased 11.9 pct to 783,600 units, helped by a weak comparison with the previous year. Over the nine months, volume sales were up 3.4 pct, or 2.4 pct excluding utility vehicles.

Peugeot said its volumes were in line with its CAP 2010 programme.

For the fourth quarter, Peugeot said it expects group sales to continue to grow year-on-year but at a lower rate than in the third quarter.

By region, volume sales in Western Europe over the first nine months of the year were up 2.5 pct, with Peugeot claiming a market share of 13.9 pct at the end of September versus 13.8 pct a year earlier.

Nine-month sales were up 12.6 pct in Central and Eastern Europe and up 24.3 pct in the Mercosur zone of South America.

In China, volumes sales rose 3.8 pct over the nine months, with Peugeot citing an improved 6.8 pct increase for the third quarter after a tough first half.

In Russia, nine-month volumes rose 31.9 pct.

By model, the company said sales of its Peugeot 207 reached 387,800 units for the nine months, in line with its own targets, while the Peugeot 308 launched last month is also meeting expectations with 1,200 orders per day.

In other activities, financing division Banque PSA Finance posted third-quarter sales of 498 mln eur, up 12.2 pct, while supply chain management unit Gefco saw quarterly sales rise 12.7 pct to 835 mln eur.

As reported yesterday, majority-owned car parts maker Faurecia generated sales of 2.815 bln eur in the quarter, up 8.7 pct.

Faurecia said yesterday it expects growth to slow in the fourth quarter compared to the first nine months. It also said the strong growth of business in North America has not yet enabled a turnaround in the operating margin in that region, but recovery plans should yield an improvement in the US starting in 2008.

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