Daimler beats expectations as its cuts pay off
GERMAN automotive group Daimler forecast higher fourth-quarter profit after a rejuvenated model range and cost cuts in the core luxury car business helped it to post better than expected results yesterday.
Third-quarter group earnings before interest and tax (ebit) excluding one-off items rose 15 per cent to €2.23bn (£1.9bn), while the Mercedes luxury car business expanded its ebit margin, a benchmark for comparing profitability with rival BMW, by nearly a full percentage point to 7.3 per cent, surpassing expectations of 6.9 per cent. Daimler reaffirmed that underlying profit would drop.