Mercedes-Benz flags market uncertainty despite 2022 earnings boost
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Top-end vehicle sales saw particularly strong growth in 2022 and helped Mercedes-Benz overcome rising costs.
PHOTO: AFP
STUTTGART – Mercedes-Benz Group beat analysts’ estimate with annual earnings of €20.5 billion (S$29.2 billion) and stronger revenue, the premium carmaker said on Friday, but it warned of lower earnings in 2023 due to economic uncertainty.
The automaker, one of the few German companies to stick to their 2022 targets – it even raised its profit forecast in October 2022 despite the unstable environment – hit its forecast of a 13 per cent to 15 per cent adjusted return on sales in the car division, reporting a 14.6 per cent margin.
Still, the company forecast a lower adjusted return on sales of 12 per cent to 14 per cent for the car division in 2023 and group earnings slightly below 2022’s, even with sales of the Mercedes-Benz car unit expected to be at the same level.
Mercedes-Benz said it will also propose a dividend of €5.20 a share, up from €5 in 2022, amounting to a total payout of €5.6 billion.
Incoming orders were sluggish in Europe, and sales in the Chinese market were tepid due to Covid-19 restrictions in the fourth quarter, the company said in a statement, adding that demand in the United States was still strong.
Still, top-end vehicle sales, which saw particularly strong growth in 2022 and helped the carmaker overcome rising costs, are expected to rise slightly in 2023.
The company’s fourth-quarter earnings came in at €5.4 billion, above the estimate of €5 billion by analysts polled by Refinitiv.
The company, which committed on Thursday to buy back up to €4 billion in shares by 2025, reported an adjusted free cash flow of €9.29 billion in its industrial business, down 8 per cent from 2022.
REUTERS
