By Victoria Waldersee
BERLIN (Reuters) -Daimler Truck will pay its first dividend as a standalone company and expects higher profits and revenue this year despite supply chain bottlenecks, it said on Friday, suggesting price increases and cost cuts will continue.
Fourth-quarter sales and profits, however, came in below expectations with analysts at Jefferies pointing to Daimler Truck’s Mercedes-Benz brand segment “where cost inflation and supplier payments weighed on the margins”.
Shares in the company were down 3.5%, underperforming a 1.9% drop in the German benchmark DAX index, which was down along with the broader European market following worries about the U.S. financial sector.
“We are not satisfied with our progress,” Chief Executive Martin Daum said during the group’s presentation of annual results with regard to fixed cost reduction.
Still, the truck and bus maker expects revenues to rise to 55 billion to 57 billion euros and an adjusted return on sales of 7.5%-9%, indicating it will carry on raising prices. In 2022, revenues rose 28% to 50.9 billion euros, with returns of 7.7%.
It will also pay a dividend of 1.30 euros per share, the first since it was spun off and listed separately from the carmaker now known as Mercedes-Benz.
“Our outlook shows that we will continue our self-help measures to improve our financials,” Chief Financial Officer Jochen Goetz said.
Fourth-quarter earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) came in at 876 million euros on sales of 14.78 billion. According to Refinitiv estimates, EBIT was seen at 1.2 billion euros on sales of 14.92 billion.
Daimler Truck raised its earnings and revenue outlook for the year in October on a stronger-than-expected third quarter, having previously said that it felt less impact from the war in Ukraine on its supply chains than some competitors.($1 = 0.9446 euros)
(Reporting by Victoria Waldersee, Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz and Christina Amann; Editing by Rachel More, Robert Birsel)
