Continental raises earnings forecast on Chinese growth

ERJ staff report (TP)

Hanover, Germany − Continental, Europe’s second-largest tire producer, raised its earnings forecast for 2013 as growth in China and North America make up for the effects of the euro’s currency-market gains, reported Christoph Rauwald for Bloomberg.

Continental stock jumped to a 21-year high after the company said earnings before interest and taxes, adjusted for one-time items, acquisitions and disposals, will total at least 10.5 percent of sales. That compares with an earlier forecast of a margin exceeding 10 percent.

The manufacturer has sidestepped the effects of the region’s car-market contraction by adding sales to customers including Volkswagen AG and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG in growing markets such as China and the US Continental, which has kept up profit with a focus on high-technology parts such as safety sensors, said today that declining rubber costs contributed to the increased forecast.

Continental rose as much as 5.8 percent and was up 5.7 percent at €142.95 at 11:08am today (7 November) in Frankfurt. The stock, which for the past four months has traded at about the highest price since at least August 1992, has gained 63 percent this year, the biggest jump on Germany’s benchmark DAX Index, valuing the company at €28.6bn.

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Full story from Bloomberg