Porsche Bucks Market Downturn
January 21, 2002
German sports car maker Porsche AG said Friday it bucked the downturn on the car market in the first six months of its 2001/02 fiscal year, booking healthy rises in both revenue and earnings over the period.
The world's most profitable car maker said at the start of its annual shareholders’ meeting that pretax profit in the first half came in at 154 million euros, a 10% rise on the year-ago period.
Net profit was up as much as 27% to 87.8 million euros, boosted by a lower tax rate as a result of Germany's recent tax reform. Unit sales in the first half rose by a moderate 0.7% to 23,370, but the traditionally strong spring months are expected to bring a boost in the second half of Porsche's fiscal year, which ends on 31 July.
Sales of the group’s entry-level Boxster model fell 13.4% in the first half, but sales of its flagship series 911 surged 15.5%. Revenue in the first six months increased 6.3% to 1.83 billion euros. Production totalled 25,000 cars at the end of January.
The group reaffirmed its full-year target of at least matching earnings levels obtained in fiscal 2000/01 even if, unit sales decline, as they are expected to do, owing to uncertainties in the global economy.