DETROIT—Continental A.G. said sales grew and that its adjusted earnings before income and taxes increased 11 percent in fiscal year 2014.
The company achieved the gains despite what it called “the pronounced weakness” of Europe's replacement tire market in fourth quarter, Continental said in a news release on the preliminary key figures of its finances.
The Hanover, Germany-based group said sales grew compared with the previous year, reaching $40.6 billion. Exchange rate effects amounting to around $589 million had a negative impact on sales.
The company said that it continued to progress “despite the weak growth in Europe, Russia, and South America. We achieved this in spite of the further uncertainty added to the already volatile market development as a result of considerable exchange rate fluctuations in some cases or, as seen recently, the drop in the price of oil.”
“The adjusted EBIT exceeding … is further proof of the outstanding performance achieved yet again by our more than 190,000 employees,” Continental Chairman Elmar Degenhart said on Jan. 12 during the announcement at the Detroit Auto Show.
“For 2015, we expect global production figures for passenger cars with a gross vehicle weight rating up to six metric tons to increase moderately once again, rising from around 87 to roughly 89 million vehicles. We are therefore aiming for sales growth of around 5 percent to a figure exceeding ($42.44) billion. With this, we want to once again securely confirm our double-digit adjusted EBIT margin,” Degenhart said.
Degenhart said the consolidation effects from the ongoing acquisition Veyance Technologies have not been taken into consideration in this outlook.
Continental will present its preliminary business figures on March 5 during its first entirely digital financial press conference.