German sports car maker Porsche raised its full-year profit forecast on the back of book gains from its Volkswagen stake after reporting stagnant sales and revenue.
"It is not difficult to predict that our annual earnings on 31st July 2007, that is at the end of this business year, will be significantly . . . better than the €2.1 billion in the previous year," chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking said today.
Earnings would be inflated by proceeds from share price hedging relating to the purchase of VW shares as well as the re-evaluation of the company's stake in Europe's largest carmaker, which alone amounts to €520 million, according to Porsche.
Vehicle sales in the first ten months to the end of May dropped marginally to 79,540 units from 79,564 a year ago, while revenue edged slightly higher to €5.98 billion from €5.96 billion previously.
After sales of the Cayenne plunged by over 41 per cent in the first six months, the rollout of a revamped version of the sport utility vehicle helped narrow the drop to just 10.7 per cent as of the end of May for a total of 25,436 vehicles.