HANNOVER, Germany (April 25, 2014) — Continental A.G. has raised its earnings outlook for 2014 after what it's calling a “successful start to the new year.”
Conti CEO Elmar Degenhart told shareholders at the company's annual meeting today the company should achieve an adjusted pre-tax operating income margin of 10.5 percent, up from 10 percent as forecast earlier.
Mr. Degenhart said Conti is basing the revised earnings outlook on the positive first quarter results — pre-tax earnings up roughly 20 percent and sales up 4 percent (or as much as 8 percent when adjusted for exchange rate effects.)
“All of our five divisions contributed to our successful start to the year. Sales and adjusted EBIT are clearly above the same quarter of the previous year,” he said.
“… we are confident that we can maintain the current momentum, as the positive trend of the first three months appears to be continuing in the second quarter,” he added:
Continental will present its figures for the first quarter of 2014 on May 6.
