Above-target EBIT, slight sales growth – Conti gives provisional figures for 2013

Continental’s newly-published provisional key figures for the 2013 fiscal year show the tyre and automotive component maker achieved an adjusted EBIT margin of 11.2 per cent, comfortably beating the target of at least 10.5 per cent set last November. Year-on-year sales increased slightly, rising from €32.7 billion to €33.3 billion.

“Our strong commitment has paid off,” stated Continental CEO Dr. Elmar Degenhart upon announcing the provisional key figures at the North American International Motor Show in Detroit, US today. “We were able to more than offset the economic limitations in Southern Europe and some emerging markets. Our success was achieved in spite of considerable negative exchange rate effects due to the strong euro, which amounted to over €700 million. The adjusted EBIT of €3.7 billion represents an extremely strong performance by the whole Continental team. In 2013 we therefore achieved an impressive continuation of the successful path we have been pursuing for years.”

Outlining Continental’s expectations for this year, Degenhart continued: “In 2014, we expect global production of cars with a total weight of up to six metric tons to increase from around 83 million units in 2013 to more than 85 million units. We want to grow faster than the global passenger car market and are aiming to increase sales by around five per cent to approximately €35 billion. At the same time, we want to comfortably achieve a double-digit adjusted EBIT margin.”

Continental will present the provisional business figures in Germany on 6 March.