Daimler Posts Profit, Lifts Targets

FRANKFURT — Daimler AG said Tuesday it swung to a second-quarter net profit and lifted its target for full-year earnings before interest and tax, fueled by a speedy recovery in the luxury-car market, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The car and truck maker posted a net profit of €1.25 billion ($1.62 billion) compared with a year-earlier net loss of $1.02 billion, driven by soaring car sales at Mercedes-Benz as well as recovering truck markets. Revenue jumped 28% to €25.11 billion from €19.61 billion.

Daimler said it is now targeting full-year earnings before interest and taxes, or Ebit, of €6 billion compared with a previous target of more than €4 billion.

"We have a very dynamic development of unit sales and revenue in all divisions," Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said in a statement, adding that the company expects "significant revenue growth" for the full year.

Daimler expects its core Mercedes-Benz division to account for €4 billion in Ebit in 2010 and the truck division for around €1 billion.

The Stuttgart-based company previously had expected Ebit at the Mercedes-Benz Cars unit to come in at the upper end of a €2.5 billion to €3 billion range.

Daimler is the world's largest truck maker by sales and the world's second-best-selling luxury car maker behind BMW AG. It was hard hit by last year's slump in demand for premium cars and trucks, but staged a powerful earnings recovery in recent months and is moving closer to its profitability target at Mercedes-Benz Cars.

According to previous statements, the unit is expected to achieve a return on sales of 10 percent in the second half of 2012 and maintain this level in 2013.