VW Passes Ford as Demand From China Makes Carmaker World's Most Profitable

Volkswagen AG, Europe’s biggest automaker, passed rival Ford Motor Co. in the auto industry earnings race last year on surging demand in China.

Net income surged sevenfold to 6.84 billion euros ($9.42 billion), the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company said today. Ford posted 2010 profit of $6.56 billion, while General Motors Co. reported $4.7 billion. Toyota Motor Corp. forecasts 490 billion yen ($6 billion) in profit in the year ending March 31.

Volkswagen aims to surpass Toyota, the world’s largest carmaker, in sales and profitability by 2018 on growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China. VW forecasts deliveries will grow 5 percent this year after reporting a record 7.2 million deliveries of cars and sport-utility vehicles in 2010. Sales in China, VW’s biggest market, advanced 37 percent last year to 1.92 million on the Lavida sedan and Golf hatchback.

“These are very strong results,” said Frank Biller, an analyst with Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg in Stuttgart, Germany, who recommends buying VW stock: “The operating business looks very solid, driven by sound demand from key markets including China.”

Volkswagen closed up 6.95 euros, or 6.2 percent, to 119.40 euros, the most since Oct. 25, in Frankfurt. The stock has dropped 2 percent this year, valuing the carmaker at 52.5 billion euros.

Net income beat the 4.96 billion-euro average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Revenue rose 21 percent to 126.8 billion euros. Earnings before interest and taxes in 2010 advanced to a record 7.14 billion euros, up from 1.85 billion euros in 2009. VW proposed a 2010 dividend of 2.20 euros per common share and 2.26 euros per preferred share.

China Expansion

VW, the first overseas carmaker to enter China three decades ago, is planning to add two plants and double production to 3 million cars annually. The manufacturer, which also owns the Audi, Skoda and Lamborghini brands, currently has nine Chinese factories.

The German automaker today named SEB AB Chief Executive Officer Annika Falkengren and Qatar Holdings LLC Executive Director Khalifa Jassim Al-Kuwari to the supervisory board. Al- Kuwari will be the second board member for Qatar Holdings LLC, which has a 17 percent VW stake.

RWE CEO Juergen Grossman and former E.ON AG manager Hans Michael Gaul will leave the board to make room for the new appointments, the carmaker said. Shareholders will vote on the changes at their May 3 meeting.

Tight Supplies

Tight component supplies stemming from parts-makers’ struggle to keep up with vehicle demand caused VW to halt production at its main Wolfsburg factory on Jan. 31 and a plant in Emden. The Audi luxury division announced plans yesterday to add 2,000 workers as it struggles to keep up with record sales.

“We expect the group’s revenue and operating profit in 2011 to be higher than the previous year,” VW said in the statement. “However, the continuing volatility in interest and exchange rate trends and commodities prices will weaken the positive volume effect.”

VW said in November it will invest 51.6 billion euros through 2015 on plants, vehicles and developing the carmaker’s nine brands worldwide. Spending doesn’t include China, the manufacturer’s biggest market, where VW’s joint ventures will invest another 10.6 billion euros.

Volkswagen announced yesterday plans to build over 100,000 cars in Russia annually with OAO GAZ, the automaker controlled by billionaire Oleg Deripaska. That comes on top of production at the carmaker’s own factory in the country in Kaluga.

‘Well Positioned’

“Volkswagen is extremely well positioned in lucrative growth markets,” Aleksej Wunrau, a BHF-Bank AG analyst in Frankfurt with an “overweight” rating on VW stock, said before the results. “Sales took a slight hit in the fourth quarter but still performed better than the overall market.”

Volkswagen is facing challenges to complete a planned merger with Porsche SE. The combination of the two carmakers, scheduled to happen in the second half, will probably be delayed until 2012 because of legal investigations into share-price manipulation allegations affecting the sports-car manufacturer, Porsche said Feb. 23.

Porsche and VW agreed to combine in August 2009 following a failed attempt by the Stuttgart-based sports-car maker to acquire its larger rival. Investors claim Porsche misled them by denying through much of 2008 it intended to acquire VW. Porsche said in October of that year it controlled most of VW’s common stock, causing the shares to surge as short-sellers raced to cover their positions. Porsche has denied the charges.