Continental AG Sticks to Forecast on First-Quarter Earnings Gain

Continental AG (CON), Europe’s second-largest auto-parts maker, reiterated sales and earnings forecasts for this year as growth in sales of car components and tires propelled first-quarter profit.

Revenue will rise more than 5 percent in 2012 to exceed 32 billion euros ($42 billion), while adjusted earnings before interest and taxes as a proportion of sales will match last year’s margin, Hanover, Germany-based Continental said today in a statement. First-quarter net income rose 31 percent to 482.9 million euros.

Chief Executive Officer Elmar Degenhart estimated April 27 that industrywide light-vehicle sales may rise this year amid“better-than-expected development” in North America and Asia, and said Continental’s revenue forecast may be too conservative.

First-quarter EBIT jumped 21 percent to 766 million euros, Continental said, reiterating figures released April 27. Sales rose 13 percent to 8.32 billion euros.