After a quarter that went surprisingly well for experts, the car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz is becoming more optimistic for the year as a whole. In the core business with cars and vans (industry), the group now expects earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) to be at the level of the previous year, as it announced on Wednesday evening. So far, Mercedes had expected a slightly falling profit.
In the second quarter, EBIT increased to 5.0 billion euros and, according to the company, slightly exceeded the average expectation of experts. Above all, the strong development in delivery vans thanks to higher prices and sales figures is responsible for the development.
The return on sales in the passenger car business was 13.5 percent and also exceeded forecasts. Higher prices and sales volumes were also positive, while currency effects, higher material costs, one-off payments to suppliers and higher investments had a negative impact.
Investors apparently rated the overall package of news positively. In an initial reaction, the Mercedes share price on the Tradegate trading platform rose by one percent compared to the Xetra closing price.
