Reuters: Hot Stocks: UPDATE 1-VW profit rises on luxury brand sales, backs outlook

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UPDATE 1-VW profit rises on luxury brand sales, backs outlook Oct 30th 2013, 08:40 Share this Email Print Reprints Wed Oct 30, 2013 4:40am EDT * Q3 op profit 2.78 bln euros vs 2.32 bln year-ago * Reiterates goals for flat 2013 op profit, record sales * New platform will "increasingly" add to savings -VW * Shares up 4.4 pct (Adds CFO, analyst comments and background) By Andreas Cremer BERLIN, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Volkswagen said third-quarter operating profit rose by a fifth on the back of record sales at premium brands Audi and Porsche, keeping the carmaker on track to meet full-year targets. Operating profit at Europe's largest automotive group rose to 2.78 billion euros ($3.8 billion) from 2.32 billion a year ago, matching a consensus forecast from 14 analysts in a Reuters poll. VW reaffirmed goals to match last year's record operating profit of 11.5 billion euros and to push sales and deliveries to record levels this year. But the company said the targets are "very ambitious given the extremely difficult economic environment." "We are focusing on disciplined cost and investment management," finance chief Hans Dieter Poetsch said. "That's particularly important given the fact that the economic environment isn't expected to improve in the short term." A plan to switch production of small and medium-sized models at its four main passenger-car brands to a new modular platform "will have an increasingly positive effect" on the group's cost structure, VW said. Analysts have warned that the new "MQB" vehicle platform, designed to cut production costs and shorten assembly times, will keep weighing on profits and its savings may miss ambitious targets. VW shares were up 4.4 percent at 182.50 euros as of 0826 GMT. "An outlook for flat earnings is anything but overwhelming," said Frankfurt-based Bankhaus Metzler analyst Juergen Pieper. "Auto markets were in a dire state last year, that's why year-on-year results look so good today." ($1 = 0.7262 euros) (Editing by Peter Dinkloh and David Holmes) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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