Volkswagen AG: Interim Report January-June 2003
WOLFSBURG, Germany--July 25, 2003--Volkswagen AG--January-June 2003 2002 +/- (%) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Volkswagen Group Deliveries to customers '000 units 2,472 2,513 - 1.6 Unit sales '000 units 2,514 2,495 + 0.7 Production '000 units 2,572 2,551 + 0.8 Sales revenue million EUR 42,831 44,060 - 2.8 Operating profit million EUR 1,220 2,532 - 51.8 Profit before tax million EUR 1,010 2,263 - 55.4 Profit after tax million EUR 596 1,403 - 57.5 Earnings per ordinary share - undiluted EUR 1.53 3.64 - 58.0 Automotive Division Cash flows from operating activities million EUR 2,874 4,690 - 38.7 Cash flows from investing activities million EUR 3,937 3,997 - 1.5 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
The first half-year was primarily influenced by declining sales in the important markets and by the continuing strength of the Euro versus key currencies, such as the US Dollar, the Pound Sterling and the Japanese Yen. In addition start-up costs and upfront expenditures for the new models had a negative impact on the operating profit of the Volkswagen Group. In the second half-year, the development of the operating profit will be increasingly positively influenced by growing sales of the new models, Touareg, Touran, Audi A3, Audi A8, the new generation of the Transporter and the new Golf, which comes onto the market in the Autumn. Our programme of optimizing product costs and reducing planned investment expenditure will also lead to a sustainable positive contribution to earnings development. For full year 2003 we expect that the operating profit will be significantly under that of the previous year, in particular on account of special effects from restructuring measures in Brazil.
Wolfsburg, July 25, 2003
Volkswagen AG - The Board of Management
(The full interim report is available at "www.volkswagen-ir.de".)