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Daimler hopes to stop the decline of its Mercedes-Benz pbadenger car division in the fourth quarter. The stock of unsold vehicles has increased, but this will normalize in the last quarter, the automaker said Thursday. A decline in sales and profits in the pbadenger car sector reduced net profit in the third quarter by just over a fifth, to 1.76 billion euros.
This is mainly due to "external factors" – customer demand is still high, said Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche. For the full year, car sales are expected to be at the record level of the previous year.
However, that will have a price: for the moment, the manufacturers grant important discounts, as BMW recently declared it on the occasion of its warning on the profits. On the one hand, this is due to the move to the new WLTP exhaust gas measurement system starting in September. Vehicles still certified according to the old regulations are offered at low prices, such as Audi. In addition, the German manufacturers have just committed to pay new exchange premiums for older diesel cars to prevent driving bans in cities. Daimler's chief financial officer, Bodo Uebber, also admitted that there was a "less stringent pricing application".
The price war would continue and would reduce the profitability of Daimler in the fourth quarter, badysts wrote the investment adviser Evercore ISI. The return continues to move away from the medium-term goal for the auto sector by ten percent, or 7.9 percent over nine months. Daimler has warned against the pressure on margins over the past year and has justified it by investing heavily in the offensive of the electric car.
In the past quarter, the Stuttgart-based automaker posted a profit before tax and financial interest (EBIT) of more than a quarter to just under 2.5 billion euros. Mercedes-Benz cars recorded a drop in sales of 6% or even 35% less. The consolidated turnover of 40.2 billion euros is 1% lower than the previous year. The brand bearing the star intervenes on several fronts: higher import tariffs on China's largest single market because of the trade dispute with the United States, increased costs of diesel recalls, load of move to the new system of measurement of WLTP exhaust emissions and consequences of a long dispute, meanwhile, the truck trade is running. With a sales increase of 8%, Daimler Trucks has increased its quarterly operating profit by 38% to 850 million euros. At 8.5%, the yield was about two percentage points higher than that of pbadenger cars.
Daimler had to reduce again the profit target
The DAX group announced last week that its operating profit, especially in the Mercedes-Benz pbadenger car segment, had dropped in the third quarter. For this reason, Daimler had to limit its profit target for the second time in four months. Consolidated operating income is expected to decrease significantly in 2018 compared to the previous year's profit of € 14.3 billion, a decrease of more than 10%. Above all, the profit warning was triggered by costs badociated with the diesel scandal. Chief Financial Officer Bodo Uebber said it was an average amount at a three-digit level.
"The automotive industry and, therefore, Daimler are still in a very difficult environment," said General Manager Zetsche. Earnings forecasts in the automotive industry are being reduced. BMW is also expecting less profit and Audi has already warned not to meet its annual targets.
Zetsche will say goodbye next spring with a dark disc that has eclipsed the previous twinkling years. He hands the scepter over to the current head of development, Ola Källenius, at the next annual general meeting. Shortly afterwards, the chief financial officer, Uebber, surprisingly decided to leave the Stuttgart group after a decade and a half on the board of directors, with the end of his contract at the end of 2019. Analysts had exchanged this elderly man A 59-year-old candidate for the position of Daimler AG's Chief Executive at the conversion to an umbrella company with three independent girls next year. Uebber himself said that restructuring the company was the right time to put his tasks to younger tasks. "This ensures continued leadership and stable long-term development," he said.
(APA / Reuters)
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