Business
Audi races ahead of other VW brands
Posts operating profit of 1.6 billion euros
Friday, March 12, 2010
Volkswagen's luxury brand Audi which is sold by ATL Autohaus in Jamaica - is racing ahead of VW's other makes and generated more than 85 percent of total operating profit in 2009, according to group figures released yesterday.
Audi's operating profit of 1.6 billion euros (2.2 billion dollars) was nearly three times that of VW's eponymous brand, which posted a profit of 561 million euros.
VW's finance unit was the second biggest contributor to operating profit, turning in 606 million euros.
In terms of unit sales, Audi sold just under 950,000 vehicles, less than one quarter the 3.954 million VW's delivered last year.
"Without Audi, VW would not be profitable," German car expert Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer from the University of Duisburg told AFP.
The VW group "does not pay enough attention to costs," he added.
VW, Europe's biggest carmaker, aims to overtake Toyota as the world number one by 2018, and sell more than 10 million vehicles per year at that point.
But chairman Martin Winterkorn told an annual press conference yesterday that "2010 will not be an easy year."
"The German and European markets will decline markedly," he said, though increases were forecast in Brazil, China and the United States.
China is now VW's biggest single market.
"Our goal is to do better than the competition" this year, Winterkorn said, though he did not provide a precise target.
In 2009, VW sold 6.29 million vehicles, making a net profit of 960 million euros, a drop of almost 80 per cent, on 105.2 billion euros in sales.
On the financial front, the group said it was sticking to plans for a rights issue in the first half of 2010, and looked to raise around four billion euros.
The funds would help maintain VW's credit rating as it integrates its latest acquisition, the luxury sports car maker Porsche.
Other VW brands include Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, SEAT, Skoda and the Swedish heavy truck maker Scania.
 
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