Automotive Group drags down Continental’s Q3 2016 earnings

While Continental achieved moderate sales growth in the third quarter of 2016, the company reports that “several isolated and unrelated circumstances” in its Automotive divisions had a “negative impact on earnings.”

“The sales growth in our automotive business gained momentum in the third quarter,” commented Dr Elmar Degenhart, chairman of Continental’s Executive Board. “With organic growth of over six per cent, we once again grew faster than the market with our solutions for safe, efficient and intelligent driving.”

Sales rose 3.8 per cent year-on-year to €10.0 billion, however warranty cases, pending antitrust proceedings and increased research and development expenses resulted in a negative impact of €450 million on the Automotive Group’s earnings; this dragged overall EBIT down 42.4 per cent to €596.3 million, and the margin contracted from 10.8 per cent of sales to just 6.0 per cent. Net income dropped 40.5 per cent to €378.5 million.

Further information about Continental’s Q3 2016 results can be found in our company profiles and reports section.