The car company Daimler has again lowered its earnings expectations for the current year. For 2018, the Group now expects earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) “well below the previous year’s level”. The shares of the company slumped in the afternoon by up to seven percent to the lowest level since July 2013.
Daimler mentioned several reasons for the profit warning. However, ‘decisive’ is an increase in expected expenditure related to ongoing administrative procedures and measures in different regions Mercedes Benz -Dieselfahrzeuge. “Say: The diesel affair comes more expensive to the group than expected.
Daimler expects the Group brand Mercedes-Benz earnings before taxes and interest rates well below last year’s level, said the automaker in Stuttgart. The consolidated result will also be significantly below the 2017 level. Last year, Daimler had sold more vehicles than ever, with profits up 24 percent to 10.9 billion euros, before taxes and interest at 14.7 billion euros.
However, the manufacturer cited other reasons for the more pessimistic view: Among other things, lower sales delays in the Mercedes-Benz Vans division, declining demand for buses of the group and the “risk provision for a possibly required conversion of certain vehicles”, which still with the earlier used refrigerant R134a.
The European Court had judged in early October that the Federal government responded too late to Daimler’s breach of the European Union’s Air Conditioning Directive. In the diesel scandal, the federal government had an official recall of several diesel 238,000 vehicles across Germany and even 774,000 cars across Europe are affected. Daimler announced that it would cooperate with the authorities.
In the third quarter, the group profit in the current business broke after provisional numbers on 2.49 billion euro – after 3.41 billion euro in the same period last year.