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Porsche profits to surge
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January 22, 1999: 4:46 a.m. ET
Strong first half performance expected at German sports car maker
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LONDON (CNNfn) - Porsche, the German maker of deluxe sports cars, unveiled Thursday a sharp rise in expected profits for the first six months of this fiscal year.
Porsche expects pre-tax profits to more than double to 195 million marks ($115.5 million), from 80.3 million marks in the same period last year. The improvement is due in part to a projected 27.5 percent rise in sales.
And the company said it expects 1998/99 full-year profit to exceed last year's level. Full year sales are projected to rise to rise about 12 percent from last year to 5.5 billion marks ($3.26 billion), with more than 40,000 cars sold.
Porsche (FPOR3) shares edged ahead 12 euros to 2100 on the Frankfurt stock exchange.
However, Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking, Porsche chief executive, warned the company's annual meeting of shareholders in Stuttgart that the rate of growth should not be projected into the second half because the first six months was influenced by the start-up of the new 911 and the Boxster assembly in Finland.
Simon Miller, European autos analyst at stockbroker Credit Lyonnais in London, said the gains reflected the revolution ushered in by Dr Wiedeking. "Five years ago and less the company was languishing with dated products and relying on a craft-based manufacturing tradition. Since then, Dr. Wiedeking has made Porsche probably the best exponent of lean based manufacturing among car companies in Europe bar the Japanese." 
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Porsche
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