VW increases operating profit – that’s what matters for investors now

Dusseldorf Solid start to the year for VW: Germany’s largest car manufacturer closed the first quarter with better sales figures than in the previous year. From January to March, sales therefore grew by more than 21 percent to 76 billion euros, operating profit increased by more than a third to 7.1 billion euros, as the group announced on Thursday.

In the previous year, however, a book profit from raw material transactions of around 3.5 billion euros had inflated the VW balance sheet. If this special effect is included, profits fell by 31 percent to 5.7 billion euros. However, analysts had expected a larger crash here. In contrast to the other companies, Volkswagen reports the special income in the operating business and not in the financial result.