Volkswagen trebles profits in third quarter

FRANKFURT, Oct 27 – Europe’s number one carmaker Volkswagen said Thursday that its bottom-line net profit more than tripled in the third quarter on strong demand for its cars.

VW said in a statement it booked net profit of 7.146 billion euros ($10 billion) in the period from July to September, up from 2.205 billion euros a year earlier.

Operating profit jumped 45.7 percent to 2.891 billion euros on a 25.3-percent increase in revenues to 38.5 billion euros and a 13.7-percent rise in unit sales to 2.041 million vehicles, the carmaker said.

Taking the first nine months of the year, VW said its net profit soared by 239 percent to 13.641 billion euros.

Nine-month revenues were up 25.6 percent at 116.28 billion euros and unit sales rose by 14.1 percent to 6.17 million vehicles.

Looking ahead to the full year, VW said it was projecting a subtantial increase in both sales and earnings, but cautioned that “volatile interest and exchange rates, as well as raw materials prices will dampen the positive development in sales volumes.”