VW 9-mths earnings beat forecasts on high demand in China, LatAm, Europe UPDATE

VW 9-mths earnings beat forecasts on high demand in China, LatAm, Europe UPDATE

	Published : Fri, 26 Oct 2007 09:53 By : Agencies Print this Story

(Updates with division/regional performance)

WOLFSBURG, Germany (Thomson Financial) - Volkswagen AG posted a 47.4 pct rise in operating profit excluding one-offs in the first nine months, beating forecasts on the back of continuing positive demand from China, South America and Europe.

Headline profits came in at 4.279 bln eur from 2.904 bln a year earlier, excluding one-offs, as sales grew 5.1 pct on the back of continuing positive demand from China, South America and Europe.

It said pretax profit from continuing operations was 4.7 bln eur up from 937 mln.

Revenues were at 80.958 bln eur, up from 77.030 bln.

Net liquidity jumped 69 pct to 13.857 bln eur.

For the third quarter, pre-exceptional operating profit was at 1.459 bln eur compared with 952 mln eur while pretax profit jumped to 1.719 bln eur from 186 mln, both exceeding forecasts.

Analysts polled by Thomson Financial News estimated operating profit at 1.306 bln eur and pretax at 1.252 bln.

Revenues increased to 26.106 bln eur from 25.138 bln, below a forecast of 26.83 bln eur.

It reiterated its forecast for full year pretax profit of at least 5.1 bln eur, unit sales of more than 6 mln vehicles and higher revenues.

It said the forecasts are based on expectations of higher unit sales and better cost structures.

However it said it continued to expect high energy and commodity prices in the remaining months of the year and believe that this will impact the development of markets.

For the January-September period, the Volkswagen Passengers Cars division posted an operating profit of 1.383 bln eur from 629 mln, Audi at 1.813 bln from 1.180, Skoda at 526 mln from 382 mln while SEAT narrowed its loss to 12 mln from 121 mln.

The Commercial Vehicles division's operating profit jumped to 148 mln eur from 60 mln on the back of a 9.8 pct growth in unit sales.

Commenting on the loss-making North American region, January-September deliveries rose only by 0.2 pct to 395,264 units, with the US market alone posting a 0.3 pct decline. In Canada, it rose 12 pct.

Revenues in North America fell by 5.3 pct to 10.0 bln eur, due primarily to the weak dollar and lower sales revenue per vehicle, the company said.

Sales in Asia-Pacific, including China, rose nearly 500 mln eur to 5.4 bln

while in South America/South Africa it was at 7.575 bln, up from 6.522 bln.

marilyn.gerlach@thomson.com

mog/jms/mog/ra

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