Record results for Daimler's anniversary year

Daimler said in a statement it booked bottom-line net profit of €6.029 billion ($8.0 billion) in 2011, a leap of 29% from the previous year.

Underlying profit, as measured by earnings before interest and tax (EBIT), jumped 20% to €8.755 billion.

Unit sales were up 11% at 2.111 million cars and revenues grew by 9.0% to €106.5 billion, the group said.

"We achieved our best-ever results in 2011 for unit sales, revenue, EBIT and net profit. All of our divisions contributed to this success," boasted chief executive Dieter Zetsche.

The Mercedes-Benz Cars division also "never performed better than in 2011," setting new records for sales, revenue and underlying profit, he said.

In the fourth quarter alone, net profit soared 57% to €1.785 billion and revenues climbed 10% to €29.066 billion.

Looking ahead o the current year, Daimler said that, assuming global industry-wide growth of 4.0%, driven primarily by emerging markets in Asia, it expected unit sales to "increase again significantly this year and that revenue will also continue to grow."

In terms of profits, underlying earnings were expected to match last year's level, Daimler added.

Source: AFP