Volkswagen Group's operating profits up 24.5 pct

Source: Xinhua | 2019-10-31

Operating profits at Germany's Volkswagen Group increased by 24.5 percent year-on-year to a total of around 13.5 billion euros (15.0 billion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters of 2019, it announced on Wednesday.
Turnover of Volkswagen amounted to 186.6 billion euros between January and September, marking an increase of 6.9 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the carmaker.
"The Volkswagen Group achieves a good performance amid a challenging market environment," commented Frank Witter, chief financial officer (CFO) at Volkswagen.
Volkswagen was expecting its vehicle deliveries in 2019 to stagnate at prior year's level since global vehicle markets "will contract faster than previously anticipated in many regions."
Previously, the German carmaker had anticipated a "slight increase" in deliveries. Volkswagen has sold around 8.1 million vehicles during the first three quarters, 1.7 percent less than in the same period last year.
Despite the anticipated stagnation in vehicle sales, Volkswagen confirmed its business guidance for 2019 and is expecting turnover to exceed the prior year's figure of 235.8 billion euros by up to 5 percent.
"The performance in the first nine months of the financial year makes us optimistic that we will achieve our full-year targets for 2019," Witter said.
Volkswagen's operational profit margin was set to be between 6.5 and 7.5 percent in 2019, compared to 7.3 percent last year, the company said.