Continental AG reported a 13.8% year-on-year improvement in first half net income, posting earnings per share of 5.71 euros, up from 2012’s 5.02 euros.
In the first six months of 2013, consolidated sales were up 0.4% year-on-year to more than 16.5 billion euros, while EBIT was down 1.4% to a little over 1.6 billion euros in the same period.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2013, Continental confirmed its adjusted EBIT margin target of more than 10%, with consolidated sales likely to rise to around 34 billion euros.
"Due to our global positioning and the further increase in the number of vehicles equipped with our products, we expect that consolidated sales will show stable year-on-year growth in the third quarter, but no further improvement over the second quarter,” said Elmar Degenhart, chairman of the executive board. “The main reason for this is that the passenger car replacement tire markets are recovering more slowly than expected, especially in Europe. We expect, moreover, that growth on the Asian markets and in NAFTA will level off over the rest of the year.”
