(Adds details on business segments)
Feb 22 (Reuters) – Canada’s Magna International Inc beat analysts’ estimates for quarterly profit on Friday as the auto parts maker assembled more vehicles, benefiting from new launches by car makers Jaguar Land Rover and Daimler AG.
Sales at its complete vehicles unit rose 39 percent to $1.69 billion, with assembly volumes rising 35 percent in the quarter to 36,600 units.
The world’s third biggest auto parts supplier by sales is betting on the fast-growing electric and self-driving vehicles market where suppliers plan to spend $300 billion to bring electric cars to the mass market over the next decade.
The company said sales at its power and vision division, which also provides parts for electric and self-driving vehicles, rose just about 1 percent.
The company partnered with ride-hailing company Lyft Inc last March, to co-develop hardware and software for self-driving cars. While its seating systems sales jumped 10 percent in the quarter, sales at its biggest unit that makes vehicles structures fell 3.6 percent to $4.18 billion in the quarter.
Excluding one-time items, Magna earned $1.63 per share, ahead of consensus analyst expectation of $1.59 per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Net income attributable to Magna fell to $456 million, or $1.37 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 from $559 million, or $1.54 per share, a year earlier.
The Aurora, Ontario-based company said total sales rose 4.7 percent to $10.14 billion.
Reporting by Susan Taylor and Shanti S Nair; Editing by James
Emmanuel and Arun Koyyur