Daimler, the luxury German carmaker has reported a net loss of €2.6 billion (£2.26 billion) for 2009 and said that it would skip its year-end dividend for the first time in 14 years.
Daimler, which makes Mercedes Benz, sold 1.6 million vehicles in 2009, compared with 2.1 million in 2008 and attributed the loss to a fall in vehicle sales across all its business units due to the global economic crisis.
Daimler, which began to de-merge from Chrysler in 2007, said that the disposal of its remaining 20 per cent of Chrysler shares in the second quarter had also had a negative effect on its financial results.
However, Daimler said today that it still expected a pre-tax profit of €2.3 billion for 2010, despite a “very challenging economic environment”, with Daimler Financial Services, its financial services division, expected to lead the way with a predicted profit of €350 million.
Dieter Zetsche, Daimler’s chairman, said: “Last year brought many great challenges also for Daimler. But as the year progressed, we made the group significantly more efficient and laid the foundations not only to overcome the upheaval affecting our industry, but to lead from a strong position. We are emerging from the crisis with plenty of torque.”
Worldwide demand for cars was expected to grow this year by between 3 and 4 per cent, Mr Zetsche added, with the upper-premium car brands expected to be strongest.
Source: The Times
"These segments hardly profited from governments’ incentive programmes last year, so no significant related effects are to be expected in 2010,” he said.
Related articles
- New Contract for Chief at Daimler (nytimes.com)
We are always looking for experienced writers who can write good original quality posts on motor-trade-insider.com. Please 