Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Daimler 1Q profits miss expectations

You can't blame Chrysler for this one! We knew it was coming. Down turn of this manufacture bleak future since Chrysler and Cerberus inherit their debt .

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- Daimler AG's first-quarter earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) fell a worse-than-expected 40 percent to 1.976 billion euros ($3.08 billion) as one-off charges weighed, the German carmaker said today.

It also inserted a line in its 2008 outlook to make clear on Tuesday its forecast for higher operating profit excluded lingering expenses for Chrysler, the ailing U.S. automaker in which it sold a majority stake last year.

"On the basis of the divisions' confirmed projections, in 2008 the Daimler Group continues to expect to post EBIT from ongoing operations of well above the prior-year level. Effects related to Chrysler are not included therein," it said.

It generated EBIT of 8.71 billion euros ($13.55 billion) in 2007, when results had a net boost of around 1 billion from one-time items.

Daimler's remaining 19.9 percent stake in Chrysler lopped 340 million euros ($529.02 million) off first-quarter EBIT, it said, including 94 million euros ($146.26 million) for restructuring costs. It wrote down the value of Chrysler vehicles by 151 million euros ($234.95 million).

Analysts polled by Reuters had on average expected first-quarter EBIT of 2.205 billion euros, down by a third from the year-earlier period, when the company booked 1.56 billion in income from the sale of shares in aerospace group EADS.

Revenue barely edged up to 23.46 billion euros ($36.50 billion) in the first quarter, hit by the dollar's weakness.

Its Mercedes-Benz Cars premium auto division boosted EBIT by 45 percent to a better-than-expected 1.15 billion euros. That represented a margin of 9.2 percent versus 9.1 percent in 2007 and 10.4 percent in the fourth quarter alone.

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