Porsche posts record earnings, expects sales to rise to $45b

Porsche AG said on Monday said it expects sales to rise to as much as 42 billion euros ($45 billion) this year after reporting record earnings and revenue in 2022 as it boosted car deliveries and tightened costs.

Chief Financial Officer Lutz Meschke, however, warned that supply chain issues, geopolitical strains and rising inflation still presented a challenge for the industry.

Porsche reported a 27.4 per cent rise in annual profit to 6.8 billion euros and revenue of 37.6 billion. A total of 19 analysts polled by Refinitiv had forecast earnings of 6.86 billion euros and revenue of 38.3 billion euros.

Deliveries rose 2.6 per cent to nearly 310,000 cars.

The company, historically a huge money spinner for the Volkswagen Group, is targeting a rise in revenue to 40-42 billion euros this year from and a margin of 17-19 per cent.

Long-term, its goal is a 20 per cent margin, it said in a statement.

The luxury carmaker’s outlook chimes with competitors like Ferrari, Aston Martin and former parent Volkswagen Group, who vowed stronger results in 2023 as the end of 2022 provided some relief from supply chain bottlenecks that had weighed on the first nine months of the year.

“Our keys to success are improved price positioning, a strong product mix, increased group sales, currency effects, and last but not least, our consistent cost discipline,” Meschke said on an analyst call.

Shares in the company shares, which have risen steadily since it started trading on the market at 82.50 last September, were down 2.7 per cent at 0917 GMT. Porsche, which overtook Volkswagen as Europe’s most valuable carmaker within a week of its stock market debut, will pay a dividend of 1 euro per ordinary share and 1.01 euros per preferred share for 2022, it said on Monday.

The medium-term target is to distribute roughly half of after-tax profit in dividends, Meschke said.